Avoid Cross Cultural Communication Breakdowns:Listen Compassionately

Here is the situation…your colleague is difficult to understand due to a foreign accent.  As a Native American English speaker, you know that if you can’t understand, most likely others can’t understand either.  What are some listening techniques you can use to make sure there is no communication breakdown?

Over the next few weeks, I will be providing you with short tips to improve listening when a speaker is hard to understand.  Here is the first one:

Tip #1 Listen compassionately

There are a lot of areas that need to be learned as an ESL speaker working in the US.  With the language alone, the speaker must learn the grammar, the vocabulary, the pronunciation of vowels and consonants, the melody and rhythm of American speech, expressions and idioms, vocal tone and context and nonverbal communication such as, gestures and body language.  That’s just the language piece.  Then there are new friends, new job responsibilities, new transportation, new foods, new EVERYTHING!  A non-native speaker is adapting to it all and the very least that we can do, is be compassionate about that.  So, when we listen and we aren’t understanding each and every word, the very least that we can do is offer our patience and understanding. 

The fact about our American culture is that we like our information presented to us directly and quickly.  There are times when a speaker who is difficult to understand gets in the way of that model.  I have heard this too often from well-meaning people who don’t want to take the time to understand.  They become easily frustrated and impatient with the speaker.  Bearing in mind that the non-native speaker has a lot to keep track of and transition into, my first tip is to listen compassionately to our non-native friends and colleagues.   

March is International Listening Month!