Better Communication Can Begin With The Native Born Speaker

The many years I have been working with foreign born speakers of American English have led me to reflect that we work so much to help them to communicate with native born speakers yet work so little on helping these native born speakers to be better understood by their foreign born audience.  I'd like to devote the next few blog entries to doing this, as I truly believe that better communication must be attempted from both sides to be effective.  These tips are aimed at the American born side of the equation.  Put your own daily chatter under the microscope and by increasing awareness, you might just increase the level of understanding when you speak to someone who did not grow up speaking American English.

American sports analogies:  have you ever noticed how often we use them in our daily speech?  "He hit a home run with that proposal (baseball)." "She did an end run to go around her supervisor (football). " "That was a slam-dunk (basketball).  You'll realize how many times we do this when you monitor your own dialog.....and when you see the blank expression of your foreign born listener. 

Nonsense expressions that have no significance if you didn't grow up here:

Think about how many times we use expressions like "willy-nilly, hanky-panky, and wishy-washy" and how puzzling they might be to others.  Simple efforts to avoid using these expressions can go a long way towards understanding. Instead, you can use real words to describe the same thing...say "erratic, bad behavior, and vague" to better convey your meaning.

Jargon:  We all tend to use the jargon and terminology specific to our line of work.  It's helpful to be aware that outside of that industry, use of these words and expressions can be puzzling to an "outsider." As a training provider, I often hear expressions in the Human Resources environment that I didn't understand at first.  Was "on boarding" something like "water-boarding?" What is a "matrix?" You get the idea.  Being aware of jargon and either defining it or using more commonly understood words will help to make the listener not feel stupid.  Remember that most people will not feel comfortable asking about an unfamiliar word or expression.

Simple attention to our own speech and phraseology goes a long way toward making a listener from another culture feel at ease in a business discussion.