Sunday, January 13, 2013
Great Communicator
My husband is an ideal communicator. As part of his job he is required to communicate with people through email, and IM messages, in person, and most often over the phone. He is often working with people who speak a language other than English and it is at these times that I think his communication skills are the best. He has learned that when leading a training to a group of users in China he has to pay close attention to how he talks. He has to avoid idioms and popular American expressions. For example using "That's a wrap" at the end of a training makes no sense to his Chinese audience. He also talks slower and adds breaks between thoughts when speaking with non-English speakers to allow them time to translate and understand what he is saying.
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This is such a great example of focusing on more than just our verbage. Cross cultural communication requires our focus on all of the things that make up language exchange. There is a culture to communication and it involves body language and pausing and body positioning just to name a few. I have lived in a foreign country and have been faced with developing new and more useful forms of communication.
ReplyDeleteI think that your husband has great ideas. Sometimes I find myself talking super fast when interacting with other people, English or non-English speaking individuals. I think in order to communicate better the first thing I should do it talk slower. Thanks for sharing helpful tips!
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