Cindy King's International Business Blog » culture-free english

English For International Appeal

Cindy King — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:00:37 +0000

Earlier this week I wrote about Culture-Free English. Today I want to follow on with Cross-Culture-Appealing English. Or how to write to appeal to a wide range of cultures…in English. That is both native English speakers and non-native English speakers.

Why would I even want to bring this up?

Well…

Do you want to develop your international business?
No budget for translations?
And you haven’t yet identified a specific country you want to sell to?

Businesses that answer yes to the three questions above should consider editing their international communication.

We looked at how Culture-Free English takes away the culturally-specific elements of your own communication. This has a flaw…

Culture-Free English can leave a rather bland communication. You need to bring it to life again.

And, one important element you need to look out for in cross-cultural communication is politeness.

So you need to go back through your communication and edit it once again.

This time you need to try to add a variety of little touches to make your communication more appealing to a broad range of cultures.

Unfortunately this process is slow. You will need to do this regularly. You see, you also need feedback from your audience.

An experience cross-cultural marketer can help you speed up the process. But even an experienced cross-cultural marketer will benefit from direct market feedback.

Here are the different elements you need to edit your communication for:

Frustration And Ease

Is your communication easy for everyone to understand?

The trouble is that sometimes cultural differences will bring up little frustrations. This can be:

How you write certain information, dates or times for example.
Something you don’t communicate that is expected or needed in another culture.

Rudeness And Politeness

This is always a delicate issue. There are just so many nuances to what people find polite or lacking in politeness.

Some cultures seem to need more politeness than others.

Some cultures are too blunt for others.

The passive tense can be a good tool when used wisely and not over used.

But the best way to acquire an internationally standard form of politeness is through practice.

This is also one of the easiest way to identify a seasoned international professional. Their form of politeness crosses cultures extremely well.

Confusion And Clarity

Ah…

The ever important element of clarity. Why am I always writing about clarity?

You need to work at building trust in cross-culture communication.

The bad news: you must do this constantly
The good news: it is very easy. Simply concentrate on consistency and clarity.

Clarity is important for all good communication, most professionals know this.

But don’t make the mistake of assuming you have clarity in your communication just because it passes your own assessment. You see, cultural differences can make it difficult to find out where any confusion starts.

So don’t be lazy. Go get feedback from your international audience. Dig for it. And remember to listen for any confusion. You don’t want to hear about it when it’s too late.

Most cases of confusion in cross-cultural communication can be remedied with more clarity in your own communication.

Cross-cultural communication teaches you how to communicate with even more clarity.

Is This For Everyone?

If you remember, I said that Culture-Free English might not be for everyone. At least not 100% Culture-Free English.

But, I personally think everyone targeting an international market should make an effort to edit their communication for the element mentioned above.

…Sure, there are some websites out there that are deliberately rude to be provocative.

But most people want to communicate with ease, politeness and clarity. You do this for your own domestic audience.

Why not try to take these a few steps further and increase your international appeal?

What you need to know about International English:

International English Guidelines

Culture-Free Communication

Cindy King — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:00:33 +0000

Internationalize Your English

When writing in English for a broad international audience there are a few strategic decisions you need to make. One of them is whether you want to use culture-free communication.

…or not.

First, let’s have a look at what culturally-specific communication is.

Culturally-Specific Communication

Most people speak like everyone else around them. When we grow up, live, go to school, and work in the same place, we acquire a specific way of using the English language. And we speak with culturally-specific words and expressions.

So…

What happens when you speak to someone else who also lives in an enclosed environment a couple of hundred kilometers…in the same country? Well, he will understand you. But…

Will he use the same words and expressions as you do?

And what happens if this person lives a thousand kilometers away…still in the same country?

You can usually identify where people are from by the different words and expressions they use.

…when they speak in your own language.

Take Away The Confusion

The problem is that when you are a non-native English speaker, these different words and expressions can be confusing.

On this blog, you often read about clarity. It is important for good cross-cultural communication.

You must avoid this confusion for good communication with a broad international audience.

Remember, there are more non-native English readers online than native-English speakers.

A website in English can give you global visibility. English is today’s lingua franca after all.

…But do you want your readers to find your English confusing?

Culture-Free English

This is why you should evaluate your website for culturally-specific communication.

And culturally-specific communication goes beyond language. It is also any use of color, numbers, graphics, photos, what is in the photos, audio and any other content.

In culture-free English you take away any culturally-specific element.

The English communication is edited and re-edited to take away its specific cultural flavor.

Not Always The Right Solution

Culture-free English is not always the best option. In many cases, it is a balancing act.

For global companies, yes, of course, culture-free English can be the best thing to do. It provides a good base both for translations, and also to create more culturally-targeted content for different foreign markets.

For other companies, it is can also be a good idea to leave a little cultural flavor in there.

A small company, with a strong cultural identity or brand, may not be able to shed all of its culturally-specific communication without losing a part of its own identity.

You can write culture-free, or almost culture-free, English and still have a clear cultural identity. But language can be a very important element.

In these cases, you have a few options:

Not change anything, in which case you will probably limit your international development.
Look at smoothing some of the cultural specificity to make it easier on other cultures…and test.
Start a new international website, division, joint venture or partnership with a new communication style.

A Step Towards International English

This is part of the process to communicate with International English.

The next step is to make your communication appealing to a broad range of cultures.

…that’s for sometime soon.

What you need to know about International English:

International English Guidelines

Cindy King's International Business Blog » culture-free english

English For International Appeal

Frustration And Ease

Rudeness And Politeness

Confusion And Clarity

Is This For Everyone?

More on Internationalizing Your English:

What you need to know about International English:

More in these Get International Clients Business Guides

Culture-Free Communication

Culturally-Specific Communication

Take Away The Confusion

Culture-Free English

Not Always The Right Solution

A Step Towards International English

More on Internationalizing Your English:

What you need to know about International English:

More in these Get International Clients Business Guides