The Worst

English Speakers

 

Vocabulary

result	go wrong	got underway
senior	setting	investigation
launch	root (2)	adjustment
basic	staff (2)	mother tongue
intend	receive	colleague
native	inspect	interaction
literal	key (2)	it turned out
convey	discourse	command (2)
fault	effective	conscious
act on	ironically	mother tongue
client	colleague	tongue (2)
comply	trace (2)	face value
slang	initially	expression
limit	idiomatic	monolingual
effort	require	consequently
relieve	challenge	take for granted
glad	proposal	Anglophone
nod	metaphor	colloquialism
idiom	horrible	euphemism
cryptic	dominate	abbreviation
tend	feedback	compound
grasp	nuance	save face/lose face
tend	majority	redundant
adapt	muddle	misinterpretation
avoid	patronize	tightrope

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

The Project

The setting was a multinational corporation. A big project got underway.

Then suddenly, something went wrong . . . which soon resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.

Months later, senior management launched an investigation to get at the root of its cause.

They traced it back to one event.

Miscommunication

A native-English speaking staff member had written and sent an email, in English, to a colleague whose mother-tongue was not English.

The receiver read the message and complied.

However his team did just the opposite of what the sender had intended — leading to the debacle.

It turned out that the non-native English receiver acted on the literal meaning of one key word.

The native English sender had wanted to convey its idiomatic meaning (which differed from the first meaning).

The Irony

When such misunderstandings happen, people initially point the finger at the non-native speakers for his or her “poor” command of English.

On closer inspection, it’s usually the native speaker who is at fault.

Natives actually have worse English communicative skills than people who speak English as a second or third language.

But how can this be?

In academic, business or technical discourse, people from different countries can generally communicate with each other in English quite effectively. Ironically, it’s the American or Briton that others can’t understand.

Non-Native Speakers of English

The mother tongue of business consultant Michael Blattner is Swiss-German, but he communicates mostly in English on the job with overseas clients. “I often hear from my non-native colleagues that they can understand me better than natives.”

Now why is that?

Non-native English speakers are conscious of their speech and writing, and make adjustments to make themselves understood. They speak more purposefully and carefully, aware that English is their and their colleagues’ second or third language.

Specifically, they use more basic vocabulary and expressions, without flowery language or slang. They express and understand one another at face value.

Americans and Brits

Native speakers of English, on the other hand, are typically monolingual and may have had limited interaction with immigrants, international students, travelers or business people.

Americans are glad that English has become the world’s lingua franca. They are relieved that don’t have to spend time and effort in learning another language . . . but consequently, have not experienced the challenges and effort required to communicate with others.

They take for granted that everyone knows English like the people from their hometown.

But what this means is that Anglophones often talk too fast for others to follow, and use slangs, idioms, metaphors, jokes and other colloquialisms specific to their own culture.

Cultural nuances also play a role. When a Brit reacts to a proposal by saying, “Well, that’s quite interesting” a fellow Brit might recognize this as a euphemism for, “That’s horrible, or I don’t care.”

Other nationalities would take it at face value.

And in emails, natives often use cryptic abbreviations such as ‘OOO’, instead of simply saying that they will be out of the office.

Feedback

Compounding the situation, in business and academic meetings, Americans and Britons tend to dominate the discussions, talking about 90% of the time.

And Anglophones don’t change their ways because they don’t realize their faults; they rarely get any feedback that what they said was not understood.

Non-Anglophones, especially Asians, are concerned about “saving and losing face”, and so nod in agreement, even though don’t really grasp what is going on.

The Majority

But with non-native English speakers in the majority worldwide, and growing by the day, it’s the Anglophones who needs to adapt.

Jean-Paul Nerriere, an author and former senior international marketing executive at IBM.

He says most adult communication regarding business and academics can be made with just 1,500 words in English — or any other language for that matter — and basic grammar.

Complex words and expressions are not only seldom used, but redundant and muddle the messages — especially if the phone or video connection is of poor quality.

“If you can communicate efficiently with limited, simple language, do so: you save time, avoid misinterpretation and mistakes,” Nerriere says. “You need to simplify and be short, clear and direct.

But be aware that there’s a fine line between doing that and being patronizing. It’s a tightrope walk,” he adds.

Questions

1. Communication is not important in business; only hard work and good management are. True or false?

2. Most people think that miscommunication is the non-native’s (foreigner’s) fault. What do you think? What is the reality?

3. Non-natives can generally understand each other. Why do they understand one another?

4. Can people understand Americans and Britons the best?

5. Why is it often difficult to understand native-speakers?

6. Are Anglophones aware others can’t understand them?

7. The more complicated your English, the more difficult the vocabulary words, grammar, idioms, metaphors used, the more impressed your listeners will be, and the more they will like you, believe you, and want to do business with you. Is this right or wrong? How should people communicate?

 

A. I communicate with people from different countries. Yes or no?

B. Who can you understand better, Americans, other nationalities or it depends?

C. In your experience, who has the “best” English? Who has the “worse”?

D. Have you English teachers and professors taught and emphasized complex sentences, vocabulary, phrases, expressions and idioms?

E. What will happen in the future?