| In memory of Professor Jan Blommaert |
This is an account of how Jan Blommaert made me stop saying that I sell hot air.
It happened when my doctoral advisory committee met in December 2018. It was an exciting meeting in which all the professors got acquainted who had agreed to accompany me on the long road to a doctorate. Jan was one of them.
We soon shared perspectives on the research topic and discovered the alluringly diverse interests of the committee members. It was a refreshing dive into academic talk, especially for me because I had just stepped out of a career as a free-lance business communication trainer. When I humbly linked the subject of my PhD research with my professional experience, I claimed that this research may well show that I had been selling hot air for years, “dat ik al jaren gebakken lucht verkoop.” Jan promptly replied that I must not say that. He eloquently explained that if participants of a business communication training course perceive the course context as real, they will perceive the rules of that game as real. Therefore, they will benefit from the training course. It is not hot air, it is real.
Jan passed away in January 2021. When he announced his diagnosis of terminal cancer nearly a year before, his friends and colleagues decided to make a documentary. It turned out to be an online masterclass, Language x Power x Activism. It premiered on 16 November 2021. His family, friends, and many of his colleagues (including the undersigned) watched the livestream in De Nieuwe Vrede, a quaint venue in Antwerp. Fifty-five beautiful minutes took us on a journey of language, opinions, power, equality, world history, profound understanding, education, integrity, social action, and perseverance. And he talked about the rules of the game. His hot air explanation of December 2018 resounded in his ultimate, posthumous masterclass.
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| Camera: Greet A. De Baets |
We often do not realize that we are playing a game of which the rules are set by other people. Jan taught us to be conscious of the game being played. We should choose if we want to play according to someone else’s rules or not. I, for one, will no longer refer to selling hot air to accommodate people who do not know the game of business communication training.
Whatever game we are in, we can learn from Jan’s ultimate masterclass: watch, comment, and share on Woord x Macht x Strijd (with English subtitles).
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