The Asks of Bjorn

Recently, a new colleague tripped over a word in the text she was editing. “Upskill?” she asked aloud skeptically. “Let it go,” I hollered from my corner. “It’s okay, it’s a word.”

I remembered the first time I heard the word. From the managing director of an SAP office. A native speaker of English. Someone who knows what he is talking about. He said that one of his goals was to upskill his staff. “Aha,” I responded knowingly. To train them, to improve their skills.

But this week I had an upskilled moment of my own. I received an e-mail from an American colleague in which she used the word “asks” as a noun: “Thanks to everyone for getting back to me on the asks of Bjorn for our upcoming event.” (All names have been changed to protect the innocent).

Only now, after several days, have I discovered that the writer didn’t even mean “needs” as I initially suspected. She means our requests of Bjorn’s time. Our “asks” of him. A friend of mine argues that American English is exciting because it is always alive and changing, is the open source of language – open to influences from music, politics, and now from new media. Of course, he is right. Although purists would reject such words out of hand, corporate-speak, as ugly as it can be, is always evolving and often exciting.