Effective Multicultural Communication In American English

By William Drake

Americans have a distinctive communications style, regardless of the part of the country they come from, regardless of their personal family or educational background, and regardless of their business and technical skills.

This American style of communication has been the subject of many studies both by Americans and those from other cultures.  We will go into the principal components of this "American-style" later; at this point let's just say that much of the rest of the world feel that they can identify an American speaker not so much by accent as by communication style.

Those who have studied international business communications agree that there is a set of challenges that is common to almost all Americans operating in an international environment. 

These challenges include:

Communicating respect for the values of others while retaining personal and organizational integrity.

Cultivating empathetic skills while pursuing rational objectives.

Practicing judgment-free interactions while retaining personal values.

Tolerating deep ambiguities while enjoying the differences those ambiguities express.

Nurturing effective business relationships in small as well as major ways.

Being aggressive and persistent while respecting unfamiliar limits.

Two areas of business where these six principles come into play with special intensity are:

Making Effective Multicultural Presentations In English

Managing Remote Written/Spoken Communications In English

In this book we'll see what lessons can be learned from people from other countries who have worked alongside Americans both in the United States and in their own country.  These observations were gathered over many years while I worked as a cross-cultural consultant to American, European, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern companies and organizations. 

Much of the time my work consisted of facilitating better communication between multicultural team members in technology companies, and in the process of the work we did together many frank discussions developed between American team members and their foreign counterparts in which individuals and groups expressed the difficulties they were having in communicating effectively and their perception of the origin of these difficulties.  These sessions were rarely “blame games”; rather they were sincere attempts on the part of everyone involved to understand why people of good will seemed to go astray so frequently in the context of multicultural teamwork.

Another component of my cross-cultural consulting work was helping American company management plan strategic initiatives involving multinational partners.  I found that very often the frustrations encountered by American managers were grounded in their inability to understand the importance of personal relationships in business to their foreign counterparts.  Again, the issue of effective communications lies at the core of most such frustration.

Finally, in some of my work the client was a foreign company doing business with an American partner and wanting to remove perceived obstacles to effective business communications, planning, integration of operations, staffing, and other areas of business where interpersonal relationships have many subtle influences that Americans, by virtue of their cultural inclinations, seem to have difficulty appreciating and practicing.

With these observations as a background, let me present some of the sincere criticisms and helpful suggestions that I heard offered many times by people from other countries doing business with Americans.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Drake
• Release date: Apr 28, 2019

Book preview

Managing Potential Cascades of Misunderstanding

Effective communication is the basis for all successful personal and business relationships, and communications across cultural boundaries pose special challenges. While English is the international language of business, individual personalities are formed and human relationships are created and sustained in the native languages and thought patterns of the individuals and organizations involved in business in every country.

Many observers of language have noted that American English speakers stand out in a world where most languages require a subtle interaction of body language along with speech and thought. It has been said that spoken American English proceeds directly from the brain to the mouth without involvement of the body, unlike many other languages in the world in which the speaker expresses his or her thoughts through a combination of spoken word, gestures, vocal inflection, and implied meaning as opposed to direct expression of meaning through words alone.

When a person whose first language is not American English is communicating with a person whose first language is American English, a complex set of issues come into play. Within this context there are many possible sources of misunderstanding, sometimes because of the inability of the non-native English speaker to communicate effectively in American English, and sometimes because of the inability of the native American English speaker to cast his language in a way that the non-native speaker can understand. Communication takes place not just with words but in all the ways that people are accustomed to discerning meaning in their own language. Each language has a unique structure, ways in which the words and phrases that communicate meaning are ordered, communicating with pauses, inflections, gestures and vocalizations such elements as deference, respect, affection, prejudice, fear or disdain. How these structures are used to create meaning reflect the cultural context within which the language is used and understood by those using it.

How Cascades of Misunderstanding Occur

International personal and business relationships, in order to be effective, require that meaning be shared and understood by all those communicating with each other on a given subject. Without such understanding, it is possible, even likely, that misunderstandings will arise. The problem with this kind of misunderstanding is not simply that it inevitably happens, but that it is very likely invisible to the parties attempting to communicate – and especially to the English-speaker who cannot function in another language.

Even in ordinary conversation, as misunderstandings accumulate invisibly, the parties to the conversation become increasingly unlikely to achieve satisfactory results from their efforts to communicate. When conversations take place within the context of business processes such as negotiation or conflict resolution, this cascade of misunderstanding will often have serious consequences.

Interpersonal conversations are not the only context within which misunderstandings arise in international business. Written communications are an environment rich with potential for cascading misunderstandings and their costly consequences. Individuals and groups operating within the context of one language attempting to communicate with individuals and groups operating within the context of a different language face special challenges in constructing effective written communications. In the fast-paced environment of today's technology, including especially the environment of e-mail and teleconferencing where rigorous attention to the impact of what is being said is generally lacking, the potential for misunderstandings is significant.

Effective cross-cultural communication requires special skills, well-developed empathy, and many different kinds of intelligence. Special skills are required to convey meaning in an environment where meaning can be shaded by so many factors that are out of the direct control of those involved in the communication. Empathy requires an ability to put yourself in the place of others and to understand how these others are receiving the message that you are attempting to communicate. The kinds of intelligence required for effective communication across cultural boundaries are not a matter of brain power; rather they emphasize the ability to learn new rules and new processes that go beyond everything you have learned about communicating within your own linguistic context.

Special Challenges For Both Americans & Non-Americans

Americans have a distinctive communications style, regardless of the part of the country they come from, regardless of their personal family or educational background, and regardless of their business and technical skills. This American style of communication has been the subject of many studies both by Americans and those from other cultures. We will go into the principal components of this American-style later; at this point let's just say that much of the rest of the world feels that they can identify an American speaker not so much by accent as by communication style.

Those who have studied international business communications agree that there is a set of challenges that is common to almost all Americans operating in an international environment. These challenges include:

1. Communicating respect for the values of others while retaining personal and organizational integrity.

2. Cultivating empathetic skills while pursuing rational objectives.

3. Practicing judgment-free interactions while retaining personal values.

4. Tolerating deep ambiguities while enjoying the differences those ambiguities express.

5. Nurturing effective business relationships in small as well as major ways.

6. Being aggressive and persistent while respecting unfamiliar limits.

There are two major areas in business where these six principles come into play with special intensity:

1. Making Effective Personal Presentations In English

2. Managing Remote Internet Communications In English

Let's take these challenges one at a time and see what lessons we can learn from people from other countries who have worked alongside Americans both in the United States and in their own country. These observations were gathered over many years while I worked as a cross-cultural consultant to American, European, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern companies and organizations.

Much of the time my work consisted of facilitating better communication between multicultural team members in technology companies, and in the process of the work we did together many frank discussions developed between American team members and their foreign counterparts in which individuals and groups expressed the difficulties they were having in communicating effectively and their perception of the origin of these difficulties. These sessions were rarely blame games; rather they were sincere attempts on the part of everyone involved to understand why people of good will seemed to go astray so frequently in the context of multicultural teamwork.

Another component of my cross-cultural consulting work was helping American company management plan strategic initiatives involving multinational partners. I found that very often the frustrations encountered by American managers were grounded in their inability to understand the importance of personal relationships in business to their foreign counterparts. Again, the issue of effective communications lies at the core of most such frustration.

Finally, in some of my work the client was a foreign company doing business with an American partner and wanting to remove perceived obstacles to effective business communications, planning, integration of operations, staffing, and other areas of business where interpersonal relationships have many subtle influences that Americans, by virtue of their cultural inclinations, seem to have difficulty appreciating and practicing.

With these observations as a background, let me present some of the sincere criticisms and helpful suggestions that I heard offered many times by people from other countries doing business with Americans.

Challenge #1: Communicating With Respect

Many of the world's cultures are what anthropologists call respect cultures. In these cultures, effective communication requires overt expressions of respect between parties in order for the intended message to be received, understood and accepted. American culture is not included in the list of respect cultures; in fact, many Americans seem to pride themselves on being able to do business even with people who they do not like or respect as long as the outcome is profitable.

This is not to say that Americans are shallow or superficial, simply that within our cultural context, who we do business with is often not as important as how successfully the business objectives can be achieved. In fact, we have expressions such as not letting personal feelings get in the way, or you don't have to like someone to do business with them.

In the respect cultures of the world these ideas are nearly impossible to comprehend.

Praise carefully in public; criticize carefully in private

Many American managers and supervisors working in other countries have run afoul of this principle that is so important in respect cultures. Within the context of American culture if an employee fails to perform or makes a mistake it is considered legitimate to criticize that employee publicly-it is even considered a good object