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.

 

A Virgin Blog

I love notebooks of all kinds and have always kept a diary. But for years, I haven’t had whatever it takes – visits from the muse, or time — to write in a diary. And as I got older, it began to feel a bit naff. But I always took notes whenever on trips abroad. These however are scattered in the many small notebooks that I have archived in boxes and trunks in the basement and attic. And a growing collection of lovely, virgin notebooks is awaiting my return to diary writing. Beginning a new notebook was always a bit intimidating, like this blog. So bear with me.