Recently, I found myself in the same room with some of my European colleagues watching a global all-hands call. The call was led by some of our American leadership team and I was struck by the number of times my European colleagues asked me to translate something. They speak and understand English.
It made me wonder – how often does this happen? How often are we unintentionally being exclusive by using native slang and phrases that don’t translate outside our own culture? It was easy for my colleagues to resolve the disconnect while someone who could translate was in the same room, but what if they’re not? What if they’re sat alone in their home office on a conference call with no one there to translate?
A transplanted American, I’ve now been working in Europe for over 10 years, surrounded by people who speak multiple languages. I’m never not in awe of my multi-lingual colleagues. One of the things I love best about working in Europe is the variety of people and cultures I get to experience. I confess though, I’m one of about 80% of Americans who only speaks English. Now, I joke that I’m bilingual – I speak both English and American – but it turns out there’s some truth to this. During my first weeks of living and working in England, I had many interactions like this:
Colleague: “Let’s have a follow-up meeting on this in a fortnight. I’ll put it in the diary.”
Me: Puzzled look. What’s a fortnight? Act like you know, worry about it later.
Me: “Sure sounds great, I’ll look for the invite.”
Me: Googles fortnight. Oh, 2 weeks, they meant 2 weeks!
So even when we think we’re speaking the same language, in this case, English, often we take for granted that people understand what we mean.
I recently read Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell. In it he recounts the first meeting between Cortés and Montezuma as a demonstration of why we’re so bad at the act of translation. Cortés and Montezuma had to speak through multiple layers of translators, the nuances of each other’s meaning lost. It’s no wonder there was a colossal misunderstanding of exactly who was surrendering to whom.
Cortés’s foray into Mexico ushered in the era of catastrophic colonial expansion. And it also introduced a new and distinctly modern pattern of social interaction. Today we are now thrown into contact all the time with people whose assumptions, perspectives, and backgrounds are different from our own. The modern world is not two brothers feuding for control of the Ottoman Empire. It is Cortés and Montezuma struggling to understand each other through multiple layers of translators.
Malcolm Gladwell
Global Expansion and Inclusion
Gladwell is right, global expansion and a distributed global workforce mean working with people who aren’t like us. It means working with people from different cultures and backgrounds who use different languages. It means being in situations where our meaning can get completely lost, or worse, we inadvertently exclude people in our audience. Take for example the number of times I’ve been in meetings watching American football and baseball analogies fall flat – too many to count. You can see the Europeans in the audience rolling their eyes and the speaker losing all credibility. It’s easy to use slang and anecdotes that you relate to. It’s harder to take a step back, look at your content and consider your audience.
And in any organization with a global workforce full of people whose first language isn’t English, it’s also important to think not only about the content of what you’re saying but also the format. Are you speaking too fast? Many of my international colleagues who speak English struggle to understand and follow the conversation in meetings. I consider the last time I tried to understand a conversation in Spanish using my high school Spanish skills. I might pick up a few words but I can’t follow the conversation. I’m excluded from truly participating. In the corporate world where English is a de facto standard, consider how inclusive you are to your international colleagues. Their confidence with English will impact their level of participation. They might not understand or they might be slower to contribute and articulate their ideas.
How can you be more inclusive with your international audiences?
Check your slang & anecdotes.
Do they use cultural references that don’t translate an international audience? Or worse, are they offensive to other cultures? If so, don’t use them. And if you’re not sure, ask a trusted international colleague for advice. I’ve been saved by the quick message to a colleague: “Hey, I was going to use this phrase in my presentation, do you understand what that means?”
Ask people how to pronounce their name correctly.
Just because you don’t speak the languages of international colleagues, this doesn’t give you a pass for being unable to say their name properly. I recently sat through a cringe-worthy conference call where an American colleague repeatedly butchered my French colleague’s name – with a different pronunciation every time. Respect your colleagues. They’ll respect you more if you make the effort and it’s really easy to just ask. “Can you help me understand how to say your name? I really want to make sure I pronounce it right.”
Slow down.
I’m naturally a fast talker. And, if I’m doing a presentation, it gets even worse as adrenaline takes hold. But speaking too fast makes it harder for your audience to concentrate on your message. And if English isn’t their first language, they are often just trying to hold on for dear life. Be intentional about slowing down. Insert pauses and breaths. Take sips of water. Invite your audience to remind you to slow down. You’ll communicate more effectively as a result.
Use chat.
Most conference call platforms these days have chat facilities. Encourage people to use them when you’re leading or participating in a call. Typing a clarifying question in the chat window may be easier and more comfortable for people whose first language isn’t English. You’ll have more engagement and participation if asking and responding to written questions is encouraged.
In the end, it’s not just about whether or not you’re respectful and you avoid offending people. It’s also about whether or not you want to get your message across effectively. Being thoughtful and inclusive across cultures and languages means you have a better chance of delivering an impactful message that resonates with people.