ENGINEER AND THE LANGUAGE: BRAIN & MOUTH FACTOR

"Most student enginers like to talk still too few enjoy speaking. Talking is casual, random and unrehearsed, but speaking requires a plan, an organization and practice. Speaking, like writing, is an art of increasing necessity for the successful engineer; an art that he must perfect if he is to succeed in his profession and his society. In any case for any emerging economy in any country depends heavily upon her entreprising engineers with the ability to stiffle intelligent ideas with fearless eloquent elocution. No over-thing, trust you

ENGINEER AND THE LANGUAGE
"BRAIN AND MOUTH FACTOR"
I have held my tongue (and pen for that matter) incommunicado for too long but thank goodness the "Student Engineer " is here to stay. The fact that it has inaugurated a new era in which it garners aspectful ideas and views from the entire student is in itself a resounding come-back. This, therefore, necessitates me, first and foremost, to take off my hat to the editorial team for such a stunning stunt. Keep it up for the job well done and welcome on board! Unfortunately, that is where congratulations end and the worries begin.

I am the staunch believer of the truism that if communicating is wrong , then we can't be write(sic). Whether the doctor or the engineer is the competent party to do so is certainly open to debate. Perhaps the most worrying is that communication skills is spiralling out of control to its death-bed. But in full view of the grave nature of the matter and for the intimate interest of the leadership for vision 2030, may I be exonorated for submitting that we the budding engineers, are poor in discourse(spoken and written language). I know at this point you must be questioning, what am I talking about but good people that stands out as a fact (not opinion) according to a recent secret research. This mediocrity has been argued for even becoming part of our own wont. Ardous and numeracy, time exacting, and intricate and knotty units undertaken are some of the favourite excuses. Yet for sure this pretty pretexts do not grant engineering students any absolution.

Most student enginers like to talk still too few enjoy speaking. Talking is casual, random and unrehearsed, but speaking requires a plan, an organization and practice. Speaking, like writing, is an art of increasing necessity for the successful engineer; an art that he must perfect if he is to succeed in his profession and his society. In any case for any emerging economy in any country depends heavily upon her entreprising engineers with the ability to stiffle intelligent ideas with fearless eloquent elocution. No over-thing, trust you. "If an engineer cannot express his ideas and the results of his endeavour to others, even though he may have the intellect of a genius and the capability of performing the most creative work, the benefits of his intellect and creative abilities will be of little use to others," so says CEng. Hinds Elliot of Queen's University Belfast(UK), and we all agree.

A big brain and a good mouth are symbiotically indispensable for great achievement. Prominent personalities and other men or women of means attain their stature because of their passionate, eloquent communication of their dreams than because of their programs and projects. We must, as comrade-in-arms, as a country and as a people, stop pretending that we do not need people of the mould of Titus Naikuni, Mugo Kibati, Prof. Oduol...name them.Remember a big brain and a good mouth are not just tools of eminence; they perform the bigger function of giving an engineer the desired credibility in the eyes of the global community.

So what should be done??With the help of the hindsight, I am advancing the view that our inquest is timely. by the time the student is a freshman in college, he is expected to have a working vocabulary of several thousand words, to be able to organize ideas into coherent pattern, and present these ideas either orally or in writing. This is the time for the engineering student to learn by trial and error his best ways to communicate. Shun decisive distaste for literature books, participate in group discussions or fellowships for the presentation of concepts and for gaining vocabulary skills, a knowledge of psychology and training in debate are all helpful. A conscious effort while in college to improve one's ability to communicate verbally will make transition to work as a practising engineer after graduation much easier.

Let us relegate this esoteric gobbledegook and "O"factor language into the dustbin of idiocy.See this"...naenda tao, ni-take breako na luncho then ni-come daro. nitadunga ile shirtoo yangu ya fao so that you can ona it. I'm not panda-ing bu...are you shangaa-ing?/"" I am lost if an engineer communicated like this in a global platform. And I resign.