4 Tips To Improve English Communication Skills for Cross-Cultural Communication

Communication skills in English are essential in today’s globalized world. If you work in a cross-cultural environment or plan to expand your business globally, communicating effectively in English should be a priority.

Improving communication skills will help you to succeed in a culturally diverse team and gain recognition for your talent, not your bad English.

The English you speak with non-native speakers is going to be very different to the English you speak with native speakers.

Generally, the business English used between non-native speakers tends to be a simplified version of English with both parties willing to explore vocabulary until they reach an agreement on words or terms they both understand and a common language is created.

Cross-Cultural Biases 

It is generally accepted that there are some differences in the level of English spoken by different nationalities. There is a perception that English speakers from places like Sweden, the Netherlands and the Philippines speak near native-level English whilst other countries such as Spain or Italy are considered basic speakers.

This is important to understand because when you enter a meeting people will have made assumptions about you and your level of English before you even open your mouth. They will either be biased for you or against you.

How Biases Affect Cross-Cultural Business Meetings

When people make assumptions it makes your life easier or harder. If you are from somewhere like Spain or Italy you will have to work 10x harder to impress compared to someone from the Netherlands.

This means if you want to win in a cross-cultural environment  you need to improve your English language skills and communicate more effectively with native English speakers.

Why You Need To Perform Better In Cross-Cultural Meetings 

Without good communication skills in English, there is a risk of

• Being judged negatively
• Misunderstanding what is being said
• Misinterpreting slang/idioms.

By learning to communicate clearly in English, you can improve your communication skills so you can communicate confidently with native speakers in the workplace

When you can communicate confidently and clearly 3 things happen:

1. You gain respect and appreciation because people can trust what you say.
2. You become more relaxed and confident which gives you more brain power to focus on solving problems and providing solutions.
3. When you can make better contributions you get recognised for excellent work and you get offered higher quality work.

Cross-Cultural Communication by caryn leach-smith

How To Perform Better in Cross-Cultural Meetings

To communicate clearly in English and upgrade your skills follow these four steps.

1. Prepare to communicate clearly in advance.

   1. Prep is key. Take the time to learn how to communicate effectively in the workplace
   2. Examine the agenda. Know what poiandnts you want to contribute to or explain.
   3. Know your facts and the point you want to make.
   4. Make sure it is clear in your mind. You cannot communicate clearly if your mind is confused.

2. Think strategically

We often have an idea in our mind about what we want to say but we rarely think about how we are going to say it.

Top professionals practice what they want to say, not just in English but in their own mother tongue. They take the time to learn any specialised language they need to help them communicate their message clearly.

Start with the end. Think about the message you want to deliver. What do you want people to know think or do? When you know what result you want work backwards to create your message.

It’s easier to work on finding the right language before the meeting and it will also help you avoid misunderstandings.

3. Be strategic.

Think in systems and plan your answer. There is no point in being enthusiastic about your topic if you can’t explain it clearly and logically.

Prepare the following

• Openings and closings.

  • Think about how you are going to start talking about the subject. For example, I’d like to talk about the recent complaint by Mr Assim.
  • Decide how you are going to end. Endings need to be pofessional and also signal to the others that you have finished. A good way to do this is to say, to recap I think …..

• Use Sequencing.

Humans are conditioned to follow systems. Everything we do is based on a system. When you get out of bed in the morning you follow the same routine. This is a system. Systems can be good or bad. Good systems provide structure. This allows others to follow what we are saying.

Firstly, secondly, finally is a sequence. This is good enough to give your communication structure.

 Without sequencing you may end up confusing people. Sequencing is used in business to make concepts easier to understand and follow. It creates clear structured communication.

4. Kill your Ego:

Stop focusing on trying to be the smartest in the room instead focus on communicating clearly.

The New Norm For Effective Communication

These 4 communication techniques will help you to improve your English communication skills and perform better in cross-cultural meetings. They will become the new norm for you.

When you master them your performance in both cross-cultural and mother-tongue meetings will improve.

The barriers to successful communication will fade away and you will become known among team members as an awesome communicator.  

To help get you started on building systems download this free guide with all the phrases you will need to improve fluency and  speak confidently in meetings.

You can scan the QR code here:

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