[SOUND] How many of you have found yourself in
the situation where you're talking to someone from another country, or
from another culture, even from another state or city,
that you don't quite get what they're saying and you're just kind of confused?
Cameron's raising his hands.
You're kind of clueless and sometimes you just, you don't know what's going on.
Well, we're here to talk to you today about cross-cultural communication.
And we think it's a very important topic to the four of us and
we hope it's valuable to you as well.
So, first thing we want to show you is cross-cultural exchanges everywhere.
And some put of a little bit funny picture there but it show you that even
simple places like a market, remote place in China that it still exists as well.
But so the point here is, did you know that translation services is actually
a $40 billion industry and it's growing 8% a year?
Did you know that 40% of your classmates here are from another country?
Did you know that also terrorism and cross-border commerce and
all the things required nuanced to cultural understanding?
That's sometimes actually beyond the simple language.
And what I'll show you here is a picture of George W with King Abdullah from Saudi.
You might find that strange but
it's actually in their customs to hold hands while two mens talk.
It just goes to show that it is really a powerful aspect of communication
that all this cultural differences underline what we say.
So, the things we also want to point out is we haven't had a session on
cross-cultural communication from this class so,
I think it is under-appreciated in some sense.
And sometimes, we all speak English here obviously have GSB but
it really delight some of the underlying differences that people
don't really express from a purely linguistic perspective.
And the second last point is really some of these things are very hard to know
because we are talking to someone from another culture.
They don't really give you a lot of feedback or we lose attention on them.
They don't really give you, hey, sorry,
I didn't understand, that's very rarely happens unless you guys are really close.
So, but the good news for all of you guys is we are here to help.
So today, we are going to talk to you guys about
some of our personal stories from the past, what we experienced,
and hopefully bring to you what JD terms conscious incompetence.
So, you're aware at least when you're talking to someone from another culture
that some things are not going across.
And lastly, we're going to offer you some advice and tips so
you guys have a sense of, one maybe small things we can do to be very effective.
So with that, I'm going to pass off to Funso who's going to talk to you about
some of the verbal communication challenges.
>> Yes, so, what we want you to take away from this class is to stay lit.
We want you to listen, inquire and
test things out whenever you're talking to people who are from different cultures.
But before we even do that,
what are some things that might get into the way of that?
Well, in Fred Jandt's book, An Introduction to
Intercultural Communication, there are three things that we consider to be
barriers to communication when it comes to the aspect of listening.
The first one is anxiety and how many of us have traveled the world and
got into a new country, we're not really sure of the norms are,
we're not really sure of the culture is or how to shake hands or do those things.
Anxiety is the number one reason that people impacted and
affects people's communication across cultures.
A second one is judging other groups by your own culture.
I mean, this may seem common sense, but you might think that everyone does
the same things or acts the same way that you do when you go into a new environment.
And that's another reason why people have found it really challenging to
communicate with people in other cultures.
A third reason is, is the same language different meaning.
I mean Jeff speaks English, I speak English.
Ashton, the other cohort, speaks English.
But I'm speaking Nigerian/American-English,
she's speaking British-English, and Ash is speaking Australian-English.
We're all speaking the same language but
there are different words that mean different things.
And it's important to be very aware that you might be using the same words but
to understand that there might be deeper meaning in those words.
And so, to bring it back to the GSB, what are some common mishaps that happen?
I mean, how many of us have been in a class where someone has said something
go ahead and break a leg?
I remember the first time I came to the US and someone told me to do that,
I was really concerned and backed away slowly.
>> [LAUGH] >> But
that's not what that means an incur event maybe you're about to go on a show.
But these are their idiomatic expressions such as this that
if your coming from another country you may not be very familiar what that means.
And it's important to recognize that you may have to explain that to
another person.
Another expression is references.
A professor in class asks someone a question, to which no one answered.
And she proceeds to say, Bueller, Bueller, Bueller, who knows what I'm talking about?
This is a reference to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Now, in a class like this where, the class is 40% international,
you may not know what that means.
And you've lost 40% of your class, and they are lost,
they've missed the entire message of what you're trying to get across.
We're very guilty of this, especially at the GSB, and it's very important to be
aware that when you make movie or TV or even sports references, and
not everyone's going to understand what you're referring to.
The third one are nonexistent words.
And what I mean by that is for example if you're speaking Spanish,
there's a word that's using Spanish, but the word does not exist in English.
Those are very difficult to transfer from one language to the other, and
if you find a word that's very close, some of that meaning is also lost so,
being very aware of what that means.
So that's it for verbal communication,
remember to stay lit and I'll pass it on to Willem.
>> So, when I was five years old, my family moved from the US to Mexico,
we made wonderful Mexican friends there.
They taught us local customs, traditions, and then, gestures as well.
Some of these gestures included thank you, and
[FOREIGN] which is also kind of a lot, or it can also mean it's crowded here.
So then, about a year and a half later, we picked up and moved to Argentina.
And this is a picture of a very famous place in Argentina,
it's also one of the worst intersections you can imagine for traffic.
>> [LAUGH] >> Here lanes mean effectively nothing,
direction of travel is kind of a suggestion.
>> [LAUGH] >> And
one day my father was driving my brother and I along this road and
by some weird fluke some guy stopped to let us merge in front of him.
Father who was confused but grateful and
gestures what he believed to kind of thank you a lot and it's also crowded here.
So, he thinks this is like the perfectly efficient use of gesture.
>> [LAUGH] >> And from one second to the next,
this guy goes from this calm, relaxed guy letting us in front of him,
to just kind of maniacal road raging monkey man,
who jumps out of his car beating on the hood and the windows of our car.
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] So, at this point,
I'm really thankful that when my father steps out of the car his physical
stature alone is enough to kind of resolve this issue.
>> [LAUGH] >> But later that night,
we learned that to Chileans, of whom there are many in Argentina,
the Mexican [FOREIGN] is actually [FOREIGN] which is frequently used
as [FOREIGN] or directly translated as your mother's shell.
>> [LAUGH] >> So,
I will let you all think about the details there.
But this was an example of a dangerous assumption you don't want to
make about nonverbal communication.
So, while it can be an extremely effective and useful tool,
I urge you all to be both aware and
respectful of not only the obvious differences in kind of personal space or
gestures although, I guess not that obvious to my father or eye contact.
But also kind of more subtle and
nuance differences in the cultural understanding of time,
kind of a pace of activity, and the use of silence, and also the use of touch.
So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to George.
>> Thank you, Willem.
>> [LAUGH] >> That was the Mexican thank you,
not a suggestion about Willem's mother, who I'm sure is a wonderful lady.
Has anyone in here ever used a translator, anyone?
It's a very interesting and challenging experience.
I was in the military and I served in the Middle East and then,
in Southeast Asia, and a lot of partners that we worked with to mentor and
conduct their own missions didn't speak English.
They either spoke, a language of Afghanistan, or Tagalog,
which is a language in the southeastern Philippines.
So, I've often found myself dealing with translators.
And so, the tools that I'm going to share with you today are things that I
learned the hard way through a lot of sweat, and tears, and embarrassment.
One of those that I'd like to highlight is that humor doesn't translate
nearly as well, and
through another language, particularly through the filter of a translator.
If you can imagine the downside of really offending someone in another language
is huge, and trying to get a small chuckle out of someone isn't even worth the risk,
my advice to you, don't try and make a joke through a translator.
Something that I am very guilty of, is when I would have meetings,
I would speak to my translator and
I would lose rapport with the audience that I was actually trying to speak to.
So, maintain a conversation and eye contact with one individual as he or
she was meant to translate to the audience.
And I completely isolated and
marginalized this person because I focus on the translator.
So, I encourage you, if you're ever using a translator, in fact,
just be mindful to maintain rapport and body language and
eye contact with your intended audience, not your translator.
Something that to me seems intuitive as I looked back and
having made these mistakes, is something about preparation.
Sit down and present with your translator, or
share your slides with your translator prior to the actual event so
that they can proofread and help you out and actually you own your own message.
Something that's unique about translators is that you think you have your own
microphone.
But what the audience actually hears is the translator's message, not your own.
So, if you're going to own your message, make sure that you
craft it exactly how you want it and practice with your translator.
There's a number of other things that I have stories I would share with you, but
we're running out of time.
One of those is around jargon in colloquial phrases.
I think we've learned a lot about that this morning, through Willem's gestures
as well as the sports metaphors but I just want to reiterate it.
Don't try and make a colloquial phrase through a translator,
because it just isn't going to work well.
And so, when it comes to translators and then, wrapping it up,
what we really want you guys to take away is this cute little acronym we devised to
stay LIT, really do listen, inquire, and test.
Anytime you're going to be communicating cross-culturally.
And lastly, we want to serve as resources for all of you going forward so,
I've listed our contact information behind us and
some of the geographies that we've exposed ourselves to.
So, if you ever find yourself either throughout your career at the GSB or
after business school going to one of these geographies, drop us a note and
we can give you some of the stories and lessons that we've learned the hard way so
that you don't make the same mistakes that we did.
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