Product details

This chapter is excerpted from 'Conducting Business Across Borders: Effective Communication in English with Non-Native Speakers'. Most misunderstandings boil down to language - how we use words and how we say them. If this is true within our own language, when we communicate across cultures the problem becomes far more critical. However, because we know we are of different cultures, we tend to blame misunderstandings on differences in culture, ignoring the fact that we may simply have misinterpreted what the other person has said to us, or we may not have been clear in what we said to that person. This book explains how to communicate in English with non-native speakers in a way that should minimize such misunderstandings. For non-native speakers, communicating with native speakers is a stressful and difficult process. Few native speakers make concessions, in terms of vocabulary used and speed of delivery, so that non-native speakers are left feeling bewildered, frustrated, humiliated, and with a slight (generally unconscious) feeling of inferiority that they have been unable to understand what has been said. Chapter 1 discusses the dangers of stereotyping and the key difficulties non-natives have with the way mother tongue speakers communicate in English. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on written English and readability, particularly in emails and reports. Chapter 4 covers the elements of the way you speak that may impede on successful communication. Chapters 5 and 6 cover meetings and negotiations; and giving presentations and demos, respectively. Chapter 7 focuses on the use of translation, translators and interpreters. The social side of business communication is discussed in the closing chapter.