Olofsson-InternationalCommunicationArticle-1.pdf

‘ ̂

Gwyneth Olofsson

International Communication
and Language

Gwyneth Olofsson owns Communico, an international framing and consulting firm based in
Sweden.

English has become the lingua franca of the business world, and people from
Amsterdam to Zanzibar use it every day as a “tool of the trade.” They also
spend a lot of time and money trying to eliminate their language mistakes, not
realizing that the fewer they make the more dangerous the errors are likely to
[become, because people aren’t expecting them. Furthermore, just because
jSomeone has mastered the grammar and vocabulary of a language and pro-
SGounces it better than some native speakers does not mean he or she uses it in
pie same way.

Communication is not only about what the words mean in the dictionary, it’s
Bso about how you string them together. There is, after all, a certain difference
Between “Do that job tomorrow,” “I’d appreciate it if you did that job tomor-
ipw,” and “Do that job tomorrow or I’ll have your guts for garters,” even if all
•iree phrases are designed to achieve the same end. Those of us who are native
Bnglish speakers have a responsibility not to use expressions that are likely to
•Infuse non-native speakers (e.g., “Have you cottoned on, or do I have to spell

kt out to your”). We also have to ensure that when “born” English speakers
•counter a communication style that seems brusque, unfriendly, or arrogant in
taieone whose native language is not English, they will not assume that this is a
lie reflection of this person’s personality or intention. It may well be that the
•taker hasn’t mastered the many nuances of words and body language that a
Rtive speaker interprets without even thinking about it. So in an unfamiliar cul-
Ire, newcomers may find themselves wondering if the downcast eyes that accom-
Inv a statement are a sit^n of modesty or dishonesty.

90 PART TWO

Recently I ran an intereultural simulation, one part of which involved a
group of ten British participants “learning” to be members of a fictitious en]
ture. This made-up culture valued touch, and as part of the exercise participants
were encouraged to touch each other at every opportunity, especially when
communicating with each other. The simulation was a nightmare for everyone
involved. The older male members of the group in particular found it extremely
difficult to touch their colleagues at all. It wasn’t surprising. Their physical con
tact with non-family members over the last forty years had been limited to a
handshake with customers and a quick elbow in the ribs from strangers on a
crowded subway, so to learn to communicate with colleagues in a tactile way
that is the norm for millions of people in Latin America or Africa was just too
much of a challenge.

Communication is about your facial expression, gestures, and actions. This
was brought home to me a few years ago when a young family moved in to the
next farm. My Swedish husband was born and brought up on a farm located on
an island off the Swedish coast, and the new family had moved there from an
outlying island and had two young children, as we did.

The four kids started to play together one day and were having a wonderful
time when it started to rain. I went out and asked them, in Swedish, if they
wanted to come into the house to play.The two new children looked at me and
said nothing, then suddenly turned tail and ran as fast as they could in the direc-
tion of their home.

I couldn’t make any sense of this, but when I went in and told my husband
what had happened he showed no surprise. Without looking up from his newspa-
per he said, “They’ve gone home to ask their mother if they can come in.” I was
amazed. How did he know? He’d never even met them. But sure enough, in a
couple of minutes there was a knock at the door and there they stood. Thinking
about it, there were two things that surprised me. The first was that the two chil-
dren hadn’t said a word when I’d asked them a question, and the second was that
my husband had understood the whole situation without even having seen what
had happened.

The explanation was, of course, that he and the two children shared the same
cultural roots. He had grown up, as they had, in a community where everyone
knew everyone else; a homogenous community where people understood what
their neighbors would do before they did it. If you grow up in a society like this
you don’t need to spell things out. Communication takes place without words
because the situation is familiar and is governed by a set of unwritten rules that
everyone understands.

If, on the other hand, you look at a country with an entirely different profile,
like the U.S., for example, a relatively new country where enormous numbers of
people immigrated from other cultures, communication patterns developed quite
differently. With high levels of mobility as thousands of people headed west
across the continent, individuals were forced to get to know one another quickly
and establish their own rules as they went along. It’s clear that in such a situation
good communication skills were vital, because you couldn’t expect the people

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE 91

you met to share your background or assumptions, so your communications with
your peers had to be clear, unambiguous, and explicit. This explains why today
many people in the U.S. have a very different communication style than the
natives of the small island off the west coast of Sweden—and many other places
where people have known each other all their lives.

MORAL
The way we communicate, and what we do or do not say, may be entirely mystify-
ing to people from other cultures, even though we believe we have made ourselves
perfectly clear.

WHAT TO SAY AND HOW TO SAY IT
Even those of us who pride ourselves on being direct don’t always say what we

i mean. If English speakers were to phone a colleague’s secretary and ask “Is David
in?” we would be surprised if she answered, “Yes” and put the phone down. We
assume she would answer the question we didn’t ask, “May I speak to David?”

Different cultures have different attitudes to directness. I remember a time
several years ago when I was in England and having problems with my car. I
drove to a garage, parked the car in front, and went inside to report the problem.
There was a long line, and as I waited a truck driver came in and addressed the
woman waiting behind me in a broad Newcastle accent. “Thanks for moving
your car, pet. The other wife just walked away and blocked me in.”

In fact, “the other wife” was me. I hadn’t seen the truck arrive behind me,
and by leaving my car where I did had managed to block his exit. We’re talking
here about a Newcastle-upon-Tyne truck driver, with tattoos, beer belly, and
shaven head, wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a man, not unlike himself, stran-
gling a big snake. But because of the way he had been brought up, this poor guy
could not bring himself to speak to me directly and tell me I was blocking his
exit, but had to speak to the woman behind me to give him a pretext to tell the
world of my stupidity. I mean, it wasn’t as if he looked like he was afraid ofcon-
pict or had spent his formative years at Eton with Prince William learning how to
conduct himself correctly in court circles. But somewhere in his cultural soft-
wiring he’d learned that in certain situations, and addressing a certain type of
person (e.g., a middle-aged woman, as opposed to a young man), he should use
an indirect communication style.

Your own personal communication style will be affected by many factors.
Obviously, the culture you come from plays a large part, as does your own native
language. Even climate may have a role to play in how we express ourselves. One
interesting (although not entirely serious) observation on this theme was made
by the English writer Ford Madox Ford who wrote, “You cannot be dumb
[silent] when you live with a person, unless you are an inhabitant of the North of
England or the State of Maine.” As someone with roots in the North of England
I don’t know if I can agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion that the colder the

92 PART TWO

climate, the more taciturn the people. However, he’s not alone in his conclusion:
in both Italy and France the people of the south regard those in the cooler north
as reserved and antisocial.

Other considerations affect both what we say and how we say it. For exam-
ple, the CEO of a large corporation might mutter to a few friends over a drink at
the club. “Well, guys, we really made a balls up of the last year’s sales, didn’t
we?” However, he probably wouldn’t make the same comment at the annual
general meeting (although it might wake up the shareholders). He is more likely
to say, “Due to circumstances beyond our control, our sales performance in the
last year was disappointing.” No matter where we come from, we all know that
how we speak depends on the audience we are speaking to.

And speaking of audiences, if you gave a presentation and asked for ques-
tions, would you be pleased or worried if there weren’t any? Would you take the
silence to mean that you had made your point so clearly that everyone under-
stood everything or as a warning sign that trouble was brewing? Would you
assume that the audience had found your talk so boring they’d all dropped off to
sleep? Or would [you] expect questions to emerge later during the informality of
the coffee break? It depends, among other things, on whether the audience was
comfortable with silence and whether they came from a culture where asking
questions in public is about losing face. Or perhaps they all came from the State
of Maine or the North of England. . . .

Letters 1-2
Many of us ask questions ifwe don’t understand something. However, in some cultures
this is not a step to be taken lightly.

Asking Questions
From the U.S. about MEXICO

Letter 1

The company is introducing a complicated new process in one of its workshops in
Mexico. We know it’s difficult, and we have a training and support package we can offer if
needed. I strongly suspect that they’re having problems down there, but we haven’t
received a single request tor advice or support. Why not?

As you know the process is a complicated one, why don’t you provide the
support package automatically instead of waiting for a request? Admitting you
need help can be a difficult thing to do no matter what culture you come from.
Questions of prestige and fear of losing face can mean that people are unwilling
to expose themselves to possible criticism. Also, if in your culture you hav<-' learned that good employees know all the answers, you may well hesitate to tell your bosses that you don't! This problem can be compounded if headquarters is located abroad, especially in a country that is bigger or richer than your own; this can make national sensitivities even worse. INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE 93 He Asked What? Letter 2 from CANADA about CHINA I enjoyed my trip to China, but I was very surprised by some questions business acquain- tances I hardly knew asked me. Two questions they asked me during a meal were how much my watch cost and how old my wife was. (I'm just glad she wasn't there to hear it!) It's odd what different cultures regard as acceptable questions. In France and many other European countries, they regard the North American exchange of personal information (Do you have any children? What do you do in your free time?) as rather intrusive, though the French will quite happily discuss matters of religion, which are regarded as taboo by, for example, many people from the Middle East. Canadians and North Americans, of course, simply see such inquiries as a friendly way of building a relationship, and they expect to answer the same questions themselves. At the same time, North Americans usually find questions about money and age too personal to ask business acquaintances. However, for many Chinese, whether in China or elsewhere in Asia, and for people in the Middle East these questions form part of ordinary conversation and are just one way of getting to know you better. Indeed, such questions are seen as a natural way to show you're interested in your new acquaintance. People in countries as far apart as China, India, and Mexico might even think it rather unfriendly if people they met did not show any interest in their personal concerns. Letters 3-4 The way people communicate with each other at work is affected by the structure of the organization they work for and by the expectations of fellow employees. Communication Stop Letter 3 From SWEDEN about GERMANY I work for a multinational company and am involved in a project that requires a lot of tech- nical input. I contacted a German colleague I'd met at a conference for a little help. When I spoke to him on the phone he was quite pleased to help us, but the next day my manager got an e-mail from the German guy's boss saying that my colleague was too busy to help me. I think the problem here is that you didn't use the "correct" channels of communication, according to the German company, anyway. In Germany, and mdeed in the majority of European and American companies, the manager wants to be informed of what his or her department members are doing, as it's an important part of his or her role to co-ordinate their efforts. What you should have done first was to contact the manager and ask if you could approach your German colleague for some assistance. Not doing so might be interpreted by his °r her manager as very rude, and even a bit underhanded. 94 PART TWO I understand that you come from a country, Sweden, where it's the norm to delegate an enormous amount of power to non-managerial staff and give them a high degree of independence, especially if they are technical specialists. However, this is certainly not the case in most countries, which tend to be much more hier- archical. Indeed, most managers from the U.K. to the United Arab Emirates, by way of the U.S., would want to be informed of such an approach to a subordinate. I suggest your manager make a formal request to his German counterpart ask- ing if you may contact the specialist. You should include a description of the kind of questions to be tackled, and a description of the benefits your project will make to the company. And be very polite. After all, you are asking the manager for a favor— to be allowed to use the valuable time of one of the department's members. Communication Breakdown From NEW ZEALAND about FRANCE Letter 4 We're having real problems with our French subsidiary. We want a couple of depart- ments in the French head office to collaborate in preparing a program for some visiting customers who want to see production operations. Naturally, this will involve consulta- tion with the factory staff to see what is practicable. However, arrangements seem to be at a standstill. We can't understand what the problem can be. What you have asked your French managers to do is to communicate in ways they may not be used to. First, you are asking your managers to operate across departmental boundaries; hence, it's not clear who is responsible for what. Sec- ond, they are being asked to communicate across hierarchical boundaries, because the managers will not be able to arrange a trip to see production facilities without some collaboration and discussion with the factory personnel. The French, as well as Latin American and Southern European business cul- tures, tend to have very clear hierarchies where each person's responsibilities are spelled out. The same applies to cultures with a Confucian heritage like Japan, China, and South Korea, where respect is awarded to age, education, and rank in the company. The French also have rather compartmentalized communication patterns, and information is not freely shared as a matter of course, but tends to remain the property of those higher up the ladder. "Knowledge is power" is the name of the game, and one likely to hinder interdepartmental collaboration. Your culture (which is more tolerant of uncertainty) is more like that of the Scandina- vians, the British, and Irish in your belief in a free flow of information, but many other cultures find this difficult to deal with. You are more likely to get a positive- result if you give one of the managers responsibility for arranging the visit, and instruct him or her to involve the factory in the plans. Letters 5-6 You may like to have things out in the open, or prefer to leave them unsaid. INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE 95 A Major Error Letter 5 from MEXICO about GERMANY We have a new German manager who is making himself"extremely unpopular here. He has introduced a new quality control system that is complicated and takes time to learn. Inevitably mistakes are made. However, when he finds an error, he seems to delight in pointing this out to the person involved in front of everyone. Several people arc already thinking of handing in their notices. Your new manager is certainly not trying to offend people intentionally. In his own direct way, a way shared by U.S. Americans who also believe that it is better to "tell it like it is," he might even be trying to help by identifying the problem. He obviously does not understand that Mexicans regard this very direct approach as fault-finding, confrontational, and aggressive. Mexicans, like most Central and South Americans and East Asians, are skilled at avoiding confrontations and situations that involve a loss of face, but this is still some- thing your new manager has to learn. Until he does, try not to take his criti- cism personally. No No Letter 6 From the U.S. about INDONESIA I found it very difficult working in Indonesia because I couldn't get a straight answer to a straight question, and this often led to misunderstandings. As far as I could see, they often said yes when they meant no. Why? Most Indonesians find it hard to give a straightforward no to a request. If you ask for something to be done that is difficult or even impossible your Indonesian colleague, instead of saying no or sorry, may say instead that he will try. Also, a promise to do something that keeps getting postponed can be another indirect way of refusing a request. There is no intention to deceive, but simply a wish to avoid situations leading to open disagreement or disappoint- ment that would cause you to lose face. And bear in mind that people from cul- tures with this indirect communication style are perfectly well understood by each other. They are simply tuned in to "reading between the lines" in a way you are not. This communication pattern is not confined to Indonesia. In countries as far away from Indonesia as Pakistan, India, and lapan the word no is regarded as impolite and is rarely heard in a business context. In Mexico and South America, too, politeness and diplomacy are valued as useful ways of avoiding conflict. But bear in mind that speakers of English can be indirect sometimes too. If invited to a party they don't want to attend, the vast majority of English speakers will say they have a cold rather than admit that they're planning to spend the evening in front of the TV. This is just another variation on the "white lie" theme, and as such is remarkably similar to the indirect response you mentioned in your question. 96 PART TWO Letters 7-9 It's easy to create the wrong impression it" you choose an inappropriate communication style—and what is inappropriate is in the ear of the listener. Aggressive From SWEDEN about FRANCE Letter 7 I find it extremely difficult to discuss business with the French. It is impossible to talk about things with them calmly and sensibly. They are very critical of any ideas that they have not originated themselves, but take any criticism of their own plans personally and get angry. If you come from a country like Sweden, where open conflict is frowned on, you may find the French debating style very aggressive. For the French, a love of words is combined with a liking for verbal combat, and they are used to organiz- ing their case logically and presenting their arguments with force and conviction, not necessarily because they believe in them, but because they consider that it is through argument and counter-argument that you will eventually arrive at the truth or the best solution to a problem. And if you don't, the debate has been an enjoyable chance to flex your intellectual muscles anyway! However, the bad feelings that may result from such spectacular clashes will usually quickly be forgotten, which is also hard for people from more low-key cultures to understand. Of course, the French are not alone in their love of dis- cussion. Greeks, Israelis, Argentineans, and Poles all enjoy a good debate too, and North Americans and Australians are no shrinking violets when it comes to putting their points forward. For the French and Australians in particular, debate- is a way of taking the measure of a new acquaintance. In your particular case, at a meeting with the French you should emphasize the most important points of your argument and repeat them patiently. Don't get tied up with details or try to score debating points. Instead, focus on the most important points you want to achieve and keep the meeting focused on them. Be very well prepared, and if in a corner, be ready to use a weapon to which the French have no defense—silence. Patronizing Pommie From A USTRALIA about the U.K. Letter 8 We have a new boss from the U.K. with one of the most affected upper-class English accents I have ever heard. Every time he opens his mouth I can just see him at the Queen's garden party in a tuxedo and top hat. I just can't take him seriously, and I won der how he expects to communicate with the other guys in the company. For historical reasons an upper-class English accent in Australia is associated with money and power, and the use and misuse of both. Australia is a proud new INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE 97 multiethnic country and many Aussics find reminders of their colonial past, that includes the accent of the former ruling class, embarrassing and even painful. But it's true that this particular type of British accent (RP, which is short for Received Pronunciation) is linked to a certain powerful social group in a way that different U.S. regional accents are not. It also continues to be an accent that dominates the boardrooms of many companies. Even in England itself people with strong regional accents may associate RP with snobbery and privilege, which is why younger members of the upper classes try to tone it down a bit. But give your boss a chance. It would be unfair to judge how well he's likely to do his job on the basis of his vowel sounds! Just Making Conversation Letter 9 From BRITAIN about JAPAN I met several Japanese businesspeople who visited Britain recently, and I tried to be pleasant and help them relax. I told a few jokes that seemed to go down well, but I later heard that they hadn't been appreciated. Yet at the time everyone laughed! Your mistake was to treat your visitors as if they were from your own country. I'm sure this was done from the best of motives, but it is a mistake to assume that every culture shares the same kind of humor. Just because your Japanese visitors laughed didn't necessarily mean that they found your joke funny—people from different cultures tend to laugh at different things. Research about what people of different nationalities find funny concluded that the Irish, British, Australians, and New Zealanders thought that jokes involving word play were funniest. Canadians and U.S. Americans preferred jokes where there was a sense of superi- ority—either because a person looked stupid or was made to look stupid by another person. Many European countries, like France, Denmark, and Belgium, liked rather surreal jokes and jokes about serious topics like death and illness. You don't say whether you told your jokes during a business meeting or after work in the pub. However, in many countries humor is confined to non-work sit- uations, and joking in an important meeting, for example, is seen as a sign that you are not treating the subject (or the individual) with respect. This would cer- tainly apply to Germany and Finland as well as Japan, where humor when busi- ness matters were being discussed would be regarded as inappropriate. And of course it might well be that your visitors didn't understand your English but did not want to lose face by showing it, because even if you are fluent in a foreign language, jokes are always the last things you understand. Finally, you need to know that people from East Asian countries as widely apart as Japan, South Korea, and Thailand may laugh if embarrassed or nervous as well as when they're happy. Letters 10-11 Rudeness may be what the listener hears, rather than what the speaker intends. 98 PART TWO Rude, or Just Informal? From DEN MARK about DENMARK Letter 10 In Denmark we tend to communicate in an informal way and consequently leave out titles like "Mr." or "Dr." We also like to communicate directly rather than "beating about the bush." But I know this isn't the case in other cultures and wondered just how rude we are perceived to be. It depends where you're going and who you're meeting. In Northern Europe, Australia, and the U.S., communication styles are quite relaxed and informal, and people take pride in talking to both manual workers and top man- agers in more or less the same way. They also tend to be rather pragmatic in their understanding of what language is for—generally it's to get things done. So they say clearly what they mean so the message comes over loud and clear. This group won't regard your informal and direct style as at all rude. In other cultures, however, what you say may be secondary to how you say it, and the British, along with the Arabs and people from many Asian cultures, put a lot of weight on how the message is delivered. Words are regarded as an important way of establishing and building relationships, not simply a tool for getting things done. If your "tone" is wrong and you are perceived as rude, peo- ple from these cultures can take offense, and, for example, not using the right titles for an individual can be regarded as a sign of disrespect. As a general rule, it's better to err on the side of formality when communi- cating with people of other nationalities, even if you've worked together for quite some time. Words define your relationship with an individual, and if you want to ensure that the relationship is one of mutual respect, your communica- tion style must reflect that. Let Me Finish! From SOUTH AFRICA about ITALY Letter 11 I travel often in Italy and in other Mediterranean countries, and I find it very irritating to be constantly interrupted. What can I do to stop this? The short answer is—not a lot. What you as a South African would call a rude interruption, nationals from Southern European countries may regard as perfectly acceptable. They may instead see an interruption as an expression ot interest and involvement in what the speaker is saying and in his or her ideas. In short, in countries such as Italy, if you wait for a pause in the conversation i'1 to present your own point of view, you'll never open your mouth! You H find that the nationals of these countries interrupt each other too, so don't take it personally. This is because silence does not have an important role in the com- munication patterns of most Latin countries. Indeed, the tempo of conversation may simply be too fast to allow for a pause between speakers. If you are interrupted in the middle of a presentation, don't show annoyance but say that you'll deal with the points raised at the end of your talk; don't M INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE 99 vourself be thrown off track. If the interruption occurs in the middle of an infor- mal meeting, accept that this is regarded as a legitimate way of raising relevant points and practice your debating skills. Letters 12-13 When to remain silent is a decision we make almost unconsciously when operating in our own culture. But in another culture this decision may be interpreted in a way we don't expect. Stuck Dumb Letter 12 from POLA ND about SOUTH KOREA During my recent trips to South Korea I have built up a good relationship with an engineer of about my own age who works in my own area of expertise. He speaks good English, and we have had a number of informal meetings where we've made tentative decisions about some technical developments. However, when his boss is present he hardly ever opens his mouth, even though this manager has to use an interpreter and does not have a technical background. It is quite usual in South Korea, and neighboring Japan, that a younger employee will be quiet in front of older managers as a sign of respect. It would be regarded as immodest to display his superior knowledge of English or the techni- cal matter at hand in front of his boss. This manager will not be directly involved in the …