Better Cross-Cultural Communication – Rephrase, Don’t Shout

Cindy King — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:00:34 +0000

Improve Your Cross-Cultural Communication

One very common phenomenon when communicating with people from different cultures is speaking slower and louder.

Have you ever noticed this?

Slower And Louder

This seems to be a common attempt to improve understanding when things appear to be difficult. And people from all cultures seem to do this.

Is this is how most adults communicate young children? By talking slower and louder?

And naturally some people make the effort of articulating their speech better.

The Real Problem

But what is the real problem?

People who do not speak your language well are not like young children just learning to communicate. They have already learned to communicate… it’s just in a different language.

And clearly adults have a different learning process than children learning to speak.

If someone already understands your language a little, he probably doing something else. He is trying to understand what you are saying… with what he already knows …he is simply stuck somewhere.

Reasons People Get Stuck

There are several different ways people from a different country can get stuck in understanding your conversation.

Note: There are different stages of proficiency in learning a language. But in each one of these stages people understand the language much better than they can speak the language.

At times, a beginner may seem to be totally ignorant in a language, when in fact he can understand the gist of what is said. Beginners are also learning how to deal with two languages in their head. And if they are not “warmed” up when speaking this new language, they can appear to be “frozen”.

Here are some of the reasons why non-native English speakers, who are proficient in English, may not understand you:

Slang or colloquial terms they do not know
Vocabulary they are not used to
They are not used to your accent
They are not used to the speed of your speech
They see two or more possible interpretations of what you said
They only understand part of what you are saying
They do not get the point of why you just said what you said
Need time to change their brain from one language to another
Too early in the morning
They are thinking of something else and need time or more details to understand you

Rephrase Your Communication

Now, when you speak to your neighbor and he does not understand something that you said, what would you do?

It might depend on your neighbor… who may be an elderly person with hearing problems…

But most people would think of rephrasing what they said.

And rephrasing is the best way to respond to a non-native English speaker who appears to not understand you.

In fact, international skills include the art of knowing when to rephrase both your own communication and the non-native English speaker’s communication. The more practice you have at rephrasing the more you understand where difficulties pop up. And your own communication will start to change, to provide more clarity.

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Better Cross-Cultural Communication – Rephrase, Don’t Shout