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    2Nov, 2013
    In a word: village

    Our Pinner Village…..

    What does ‘village’ mean to people these days?  What exactly IS a village in 21st-century Britain?   Can you still be a village in a 24×7, open-all-hours, addicted-to-busy mobile world where people communicate predominantly by email and text message?   Can you still be a village if you have streets full of ‘chain’ shops?   (Don’t all write in at once, please….)

    What about the global village, the Westminster village, the ‘village mentality’?  What message does the word village convey in those phrases?

    According to the Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia, Pinner isn’t the village it used to be…  Wikipedia reports:  “In recent years many chain stores have opened up on Bridge Street, making the suburb less ‘village like’ and more in line with other suburban shopping developments.  The chain stores themselves have created a fair amount of retail competition, especially as almost all the stores have equivalents run by independent owners that are nearby.”

    So are we still a village here in Pinner?  Let’s look at some definitions.  What do English language courses teach, for example?  Pimsleur English courses not only define words but also give helpful phrases for students to learn context and common usage.  They say that village means ‘a very small town’ and their typical example of how to use the word is: “I will never get used to living in a village.”  Right then.   Not exactly the most positive introduction to English village life….

    Size matters, it seems.  The definition of a village as ‘smaller than a town – larger than a hamlet’ is found in all the major dictionaries, from Collins to Websters to Chambers and on into the modern Internet directories too.

    Wikipedia offers its own definition, expanding on the theme to include village inhabitants and fixtures:  ‘a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town or city. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings.”  We’ve got lots of fixed dwellings – well mine is, anyway – so we’re OK on that score.

    The focus on ‘settlement’ is also evident across the Atlantic (no expense spared here in search of answers) where the United States Department of the Interior, Fish & Wildlife Service defines village as ‘a permanent settlement with one or more year-round residents’.  So Pinner definitely still qualifies as a village under the regulations applicable to migratory bird subsistence harvest in Alaska.  A relief to us all, you’ll agree.

    Things start to go downhill, however, when we consult the Urban Dictionary of modern ‘street’ language.  Apparently, village now has a whole new negative connotation and is used as an adjective to refer to anything conducted on a small scale, with a very low standard.  Charming!  Do they offer anything more encouraging?  Ah yes, they do get more serious and return to the size metric, conceding that village as a noun means ‘a small town, larger than a hamlet and usually containing between 100 and 2000 people’.  That’s more like it.

    The Ordnance Survey narrows the size descriptor even further, saying that a village is ‘usually described as a centre of population with an area less than 2.5 square kilometres (1 square mile). A village will always have a church.’  We’re still in the running then.

    So now we’ve identified comparative and actual size requirements for our village, what about location?   Back to Wikipedia, which records that the major factors in the type of settlement pattern characterising a village are: location of water sources, the organisation of agriculture and landholding and the likelihood of flooding.  Yes, we all know more than we want to about the likelihood of flooding in this area, as soon as we give the HA5 postcode to household insurers…

    Wikipedia then reminds us about telling changes in our country’s development. ‘The Industrial Revolution caused many villages to grow into towns and cities; this trend of urbanisation has continued, though not always in connection with industrialisation. Villages have thus been eclipsed in importance, as units of human society and settlement.’  As long as we can boast community activities such as Pinner Fair, the St George’s Day celebrations and our Pinner Pantomime Evening, for example, we continue to retain our village atmosphere and involve newer inhabitants in village life, to make sure we aren’t swallowed up in London’s all-enveloping outskirts.

    On balance, then, the results of our ‘virtual world tour’ certainly indicate that we can still be a village if we’re smaller than a town but bigger than a hamlet, if we have a church, some other fixed dwellings and a clustered human settlement incorporating one or more year-round residents (that’s you, dear reader).

    We may be part of a global village, but it’s comforting to know that even when we’re talking about wide geographical expanses, what we’re really saying is that, even today, ‘village’ life is about shared values, shared experiences and a shared sense of community.

     

    2Nov, 2013
    Impact – have it, flaunt it, change it!

    Impact: the psychologist view

    “Successful people do have strong personal impact,” says Dr Lesley Morris.  “Remember the Shirley Bassey song: ‘the minute he walked in the joint, I could see he was a man of distinction – a real big spender’.  Well, who wouldn’t make a beeline for a person like that!”  Even the most timid people can change, though, according to Morris, because we all automatically adjust our impact depending on how we feel about our surroundings, which means that we can do it consciously if we put our minds to it.

    To explain the concept, Morris says firstly imagine yourself in front of a closed door.  On the other side is an important business function, in full swing.  You’re nervous, you’d rather go home – but you have to go in.  You probably open the door very quietly and slide in, heading for a wall, searching desperately for familiar faces.  “You instinctively try and make yourself smaller, literally shrinking away from a source of fear,” Morris explains.

    Now another closed door, but on the other side are family and friends you haven’t seen for ages.  You’ve missed them; they’ve missed you.  This time, you fling open the door and stride in.  “It’s a natural response,” says Morris, “and we can work on it.  Once people confront their insecurities, they can improve their personal impact dramatically.  You see them literally growing with confidence.”

    Impact: the Image Consultant view

    “Impact comes from posture, clothes, hair, make-up, body language – it’s a total package, but some elements are more important than others,” says image consultant Vivienne Cable. “For example, you can have the finest clothes and beautiful hair but if you slouch about the place, the whole effect is ruined.”

    A long-standing member of the Association of Image Consultants International, Cable runs a “one-stop-shop” covering all aspects of image makeover for men and women.  Considering people in public life who significantly changed their impact, Cable says the most obvious is Princess Diana, the shy teenager who became a sophisticated, elegant woman after help with her hair, clothes and public speaking.

    Cable also works with a lot of men in business.  The first question that usually strikes her is: why are they stooped?  “They often seem to be carrying the world on their shoulders,” she says, “and when we ‘lift’ them suddenly their posture changes and they look completely different.”

    Cable says if anything about your appearance is not right, you focus on that and it detracts from your overall impact.  “If your clothes are uncomfortable or you’re not happy with your hair, it’s the first thing you fidget with and it becomes the first thing other people notice.”  (She certainly had this reporter scrutinising hair and outfit in that mirror.)

    Impact: the voice coach view

    “A common trait among Australian voices, women’s in particular, is a slight nasal quality,” explains voice teacher Lorraine Merritt. “Women also come to me worried their voice is too thin or ‘girly’ because in business it’s perceived that a light voice equals lightweight person, lacking substance.”

    Merritt says impact comes down to physical presence – and modern open-plan offices simply stifle it.  “People are contained, like battery hens,” she says. “They’re so aware of everyone around them that they keep their voices down and minimise the space they take up.  If they go into a larger room for meetings or presentations, they’ve lost the ability to project into the bigger space.”  Watch how entertainers move, she says, they usually have a far greater sense of taking up space.

    To improve voice and impact, Merritt focuses firstly on establishing a state of physical ease.  This means not being self-conscious, fidgeting or displaying awkward mannerisms.  Then she works on posture, breathing and the tone of the voice.  “How we stand and hold our head affects the strength of the voice and how far it travels,” she says. “But voice alone cannot communicate the message.  What’s important is that our voice allows us to have the greatest impact with what we’re saying.”

    Merritt’s main improvement tips include:

    1. Turn off the inner critic
    2. Develop your sense of personal space
    3. Maintain a dynamic, flexible posture
    4. Learn about breathing, vocal energy and projection, placing sound in the appropriate space
    5. Develop a confident voice – and that doesn’t mean increasing the volume!