Moving to a new place requires learning a new language, always. When I came from Cuba to the United States it was pretty obvious: While in Cuba I spoke Spanish, in the United States I needed to learn how to speak English. However, every next place -- though it might share the same language as the previous -- has its own jargon, idioms, and acronyms. English was just my second language.
Let me further exemplify what I mean. Moving from Cuba to the United States was not the only time I needed to learn a new language; the same thing happened when I moved from Miami to Durham to go to college. Duke has its own language too -- K-ville, RA, IV, DSG, ESG, EWB, RLHS, OSAF, LDOC, GTHC. Those are but a few of the acronyms in a Duke's student regular vocabulary. At first I could not understand; luckily some languages are more similar than others -- like Spanish and Portuguese, as opposed to Spanish and Chinese -- and, within a semester, I could understand. Duke was my third language.
Then, after fully knowing three languages, I moved to a brand new place: GE Healthcare. GE has an acronym for everything, even its own name -- PI, P&L, SOP, US (meaning Ultrasound, not United States) -- there is even an internal tool to ask for the meaning of acronyms. Unluckily, the language spoken in this place is more like Spanish and Chinese; however, I have been told, the more languages you know, the easier it is to learn the next one. So far, after a month, I am beginning to understand what people around me are saying; I have finally figured out the meaning of the mysterious dash.
The first few times I heard the word, I assumed it was some kind of product. Dash, it must be a new line of MR (Magnetic Resonance) unit. However, that inference quickly proved wrong; more likely it was a part within a product, a monitor screen. It made a lot of sense: I kept hearing dash 2, dash 3, dash 4; so, obviously, they were talking about new versions of this line of monitors. However, I was wrong again. Yesterday, I learned the actual meaning . While I was in a meeting, someone was pointing out a part number: 521...dash 3. Oh, so that is what dash is. Dash is not a product line, nor is it a specific part within a product: dash is the revision number of any part. For example, part 521...dash 3, refers to the third revision of part 521...; that explained why I had never heard of dash 1 -- the original part number stands alone. Happy about my new found knowledge, I commented my discovery with a coworker, who told me I was wrong.
He proceeded to explain the meaning stating that dash is less closely linked to a part, and more closely linked to function. Therefore, dash 2, is a reference to a new part (which is not necessarily a new revision of the previous), but acquired the part number of the original because it serves the same function. Technically, I was wrong; practically, I was right.
All in all, it took me about a month to find out the meaning of dash. I supposed I could just have asked. However, I might have received the following explanation: Because we have so much PI in every P&L we cannot assign a new P/N to every item because in Dragon it gets hard to track at the invoice level, not to mention Oracle, so we use dash instead. To which, a month ago, I might have replied: What is Oracle? And received the following response: You need Oracle to do your job, so how about you use your SSO to log into SupportCentral which has all the answers; BTW, make sure to learn the SOP.
Let me further exemplify what I mean. Moving from Cuba to the United States was not the only time I needed to learn a new language; the same thing happened when I moved from Miami to Durham to go to college. Duke has its own language too -- K-ville, RA, IV, DSG, ESG, EWB, RLHS, OSAF, LDOC, GTHC. Those are but a few of the acronyms in a Duke's student regular vocabulary. At first I could not understand; luckily some languages are more similar than others -- like Spanish and Portuguese, as opposed to Spanish and Chinese -- and, within a semester, I could understand. Duke was my third language.
Then, after fully knowing three languages, I moved to a brand new place: GE Healthcare. GE has an acronym for everything, even its own name -- PI, P&L, SOP, US (meaning Ultrasound, not United States) -- there is even an internal tool to ask for the meaning of acronyms. Unluckily, the language spoken in this place is more like Spanish and Chinese; however, I have been told, the more languages you know, the easier it is to learn the next one. So far, after a month, I am beginning to understand what people around me are saying; I have finally figured out the meaning of the mysterious dash.
The first few times I heard the word, I assumed it was some kind of product. Dash, it must be a new line of MR (Magnetic Resonance) unit. However, that inference quickly proved wrong; more likely it was a part within a product, a monitor screen. It made a lot of sense: I kept hearing dash 2, dash 3, dash 4; so, obviously, they were talking about new versions of this line of monitors. However, I was wrong again. Yesterday, I learned the actual meaning . While I was in a meeting, someone was pointing out a part number: 521...dash 3. Oh, so that is what dash is. Dash is not a product line, nor is it a specific part within a product: dash is the revision number of any part. For example, part 521...dash 3, refers to the third revision of part 521...; that explained why I had never heard of dash 1 -- the original part number stands alone. Happy about my new found knowledge, I commented my discovery with a coworker, who told me I was wrong.
He proceeded to explain the meaning stating that dash is less closely linked to a part, and more closely linked to function. Therefore, dash 2, is a reference to a new part (which is not necessarily a new revision of the previous), but acquired the part number of the original because it serves the same function. Technically, I was wrong; practically, I was right.
All in all, it took me about a month to find out the meaning of dash. I supposed I could just have asked. However, I might have received the following explanation: Because we have so much PI in every P&L we cannot assign a new P/N to every item because in Dragon it gets hard to track at the invoice level, not to mention Oracle, so we use dash instead. To which, a month ago, I might have replied: What is Oracle? And received the following response: You need Oracle to do your job, so how about you use your SSO to log into SupportCentral which has all the answers; BTW, make sure to learn the SOP.
I am all catched up!
ReplyDeletecaught up :D
ReplyDelete