Text C How to Improve Verbal Communication

Pre-reading Exercise

Pair Work

1. People from different countries may use different expressions to convey the same meaning. In the following chart, the left column is the expressions commonly used in Singapore. Work with your partner and figure out the American equivalents. You will find the answers in Text C.

2. What do the following idioms mean? You will also find the answers in Text C. Break a leg!

_______________

to hold one's tongue

_______________

to rain cats and dogs

_______________

more money down the drain

_______________

In discussing verbal communication, the choice of words and expressions, organization of messages, and clarity of pronunciation will be examined.

Choice of words and expressions

When you are communicating with people of a different culture, you need to pay careful attention to your choice of words and expressions. Avoid ambiguous words, unfamiliar words, acronyms, idiomatic expressions and slang.

Ambiguous words

The same word may have very different interpretations in different cultures and this could give rise to miscommunication when interacting with people across cultures. Here are some examples:

When one suggests tabling something for discussion, it means putting it on the meeting agenda in England but it means taking it off the agenda in the US.

Unfamiliar words

The use of unfamiliar words can also cause a breakdown in communication.e. g.

Acronyms

Acronyms that are easily understood by members of one culture may be totally incomprehensible to members of another culture.

e. g. FYI, ASAP, EDB, IPO

Idioms

These expressions can create a breakdown in communication when used in an intercultural context, especially one involving non-native speakers of English. For instance，

to break a leg (to do well at some performance)

to hold one's tongue (to refrain from saying something unpleasant or nasty)

to rain cats and dogs (to rain very heavily)

more money down the drain (more money to spend)

Slang

Cultures may develop their own slang that may be foreign to other cultures using the same language. For instance，

An advertisement by Electrolux worked very well in Europe but was unusable in the United States. The advertisement carries the slogan, “Nothing sucks like the Electrolux”. The slogan will not go down well with an American audience because the slang expression“it sucks”has negative connotations in the US. In Europe, the word“sucks”has a literal meaning, so the slogan is perfectly all right.

Organization of messages

It is also important to organize your messages in a way that is suitable for your target audience whose culture is different from yours. Many English-speaking countries prefer a direct approach to most messages with the main idea presented first and the details given later. However, for many other cultures like Latin American, Japanese and Arabic cultures, this direct approach is not usually favored and may even sometimes be seen as tactless and rude. This preference can be traced back to the nature of the culture with respect to face-saving.

Clarity of pronunciation

The clear articulation of speech is important in any speaking situation but even more so when speaking in an intercultural communication context. Some words are so close in pronunciation that articulating them wrongly or“lazily”could create confusion in communication as in the following cases.

For Fun

Work to Read

Lewis, Richard D. When Cultures Collide: Leading across Cultures. London:Nicholas Brealey Publishing,2005.

The successful managers for the next century will be the culturally sensitive ones. You can gain competitive advantage from having strategies to deal with the cultural differences you will encounter in any international business setting.Richard Lewis, a speaker of 12 languages, provides a guide to working and communicating across cultures, and explains how your culture and language affect the ways in which you think and respond.

Movies to Watch

Babel is one of the most intelligent and artfully made films of 2006. The film has two central themes—culture and communication. It brilliantly weaves four deeply interconnected stories engaging five cultures on three continents. The cultures are North American, Mexican, Islamic and Japanese. At the heart of each tragedy is an inability to communicate. The tragedies begin with bad decisions that spin each plot somewhat out of control once cultural interference and miscommunication kick in.