How To Communicate Well With People From Other Cultures?

The 21st century business environment is expanding to include people from cultures and countries around the world. Communicating across so many cultures requires special skills. Your courtesy and respect will help lay the foundation for effective communication. People respond with courtesy and feel comfortable knowing they have your respect. It helps them to be open and ready to ask questions if they don't understand something. By reassuring people, you help them become better listeners.

• Speak more slowly. Allow those who don't share your native language to interpret what you say.
• Speak clearly and concisely. Make eye contact and speak clearly. Avoid using ambiguous or double-meaning words. One of the problems non-English speaking cultures have with the English language is that they don't understand the many meanings a word can have.
• keep it simple Think about your audience and speak to their understanding. Don't make long speeches that will cause your group to lose. Let the audience absorb what is being said. Pay attention to your audience and be an active speaker and listener. You can determine a group's understanding of your communication by their reaction to your words.
• Be respectful and courteous to people from different cultures. Respecting the people you communicate with helps reduce the stress they feel trying to understand what you are saying. Conducting background research on specific ways to interact with the cultures you come into contact with is a great way to show your multicultural group that you respect them.
• Smile and be open. Your body language conveys your acceptance or non-acceptance and respect, as it helps put listeners at ease. Your body language conveys unspoken communication. Avoid big hand gestures as they can be intimidating to people who might misinterpret your meaning. When you sit idly by, people often think you're not open to what they have to say.
• Avoid technical jargon. Slang words are culture-specific and not always interpreted correctly. To ensure effective cross-cultural communication, avoid using slang words that others may not be familiar with.
• Avoid humor. What's funny in one culture may not be in another. Humor can be misinterpreted and misconstrued. Although humor is a good icebreaker, it can backfire if the cross-cultural group loses its sense of humor. When in doubt, avoid using humor when communicating with people from different cultures.
• Take a formal approach to communication until you have established a relationship with your group. A laid-back, informal approach can anger people from other cultures, especially if you're new to them. Speak respectfully and formally until you have established a relationship with your cross-cultural group.
• Avoid negative questions or answers. Double negatives are confusing enough for those whose first language is English. In a cross-cultural situation, double negatives are easily misinterpreted. Keep the questions and answers simple so everyone can understand.
• Ask for feedback. Invite members of the cross-cultural group to talk and interact or ask questions. If you enable two-way communication, misunderstandings can be avoided and questions can be clarified.
• Summarize what you said. Don't assume everyone will understand just because you said so. Repeat what was said in a different way, summarize it, and give people time to understand what was said. By summarizing what you said, you can verify that everyone is on the same page.