6 tips for speaking English to non-native speakers

speaking English to non-native speakers

Speaking English to an audience of non-native speakers is tricky. Because so many people speak English, many native English speakers forget how complicated English can be for others.

The difference between the United Nations and the National Hockey League

For 17 years, I worked in the United Nations system. I was based in Geneva, but traveled extensively, particularly throughout the Middle East.

Once I went on mission—UN language for a business trip—to Boston with Thierry, a friend and colleague from France. He and I spoke French to each other but in office meetings, the working language was English. Thierry’s English was excellent as he had spent some time studying in the United States. In Boston, we had several meetings, always in English.

One evening, Thierry and I headed into town. The Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League were playing the Ottawa Senators that night. Being Canadian, hockey is in my blood so I was excited by the prospect of seeing a live NHL game and introducing Thierry to the sport. We settled into our seats and had a great time, particularly chatting with the Bostonians beside us.

After the game, we headed to a bar for a drink. As we walked, Thierry said to me, in French, “John, I have to tell you something and it’s very strange. When we’re in Geneva and working in English, you are clear and easy to understand. Tonight, I couldn’t understand half of what you said when you were speaking to the people beside us.”

I was puzzled for a moment, but then realized what he meant. Because I was back in North America and speaking English with other North Americans, I spoke faster than I did when at work in Geneva. I also used a lot of slang and colloquialisms that would confuse non-native speakers. In short, I was speaking a different English.

After 20+ years living in Switzerland, I have learned to modify my English when speaking to an audience of non-native speakers. This does not mean that I “dumb down” my speech because that would be an insult to people who are as intelligent, or more intelligent, than me. It means that I avoid jargon and complicated words. I speak more slowly than normal and pause more often so that people can follow.

Native English speakers are confusing everyone else

In an excellent article entitled, “How native English speakers can stop confusing everyone else”Financial Times columnist Michael Skapinker examines the seriousness of the problem. He writes that it is widely recognized that many non-native English speakers don’t understand what native English speakers are saying. Furthermore, Brits, Americans, Australians, Canadians and others who have spoken English all their lives “are largely oblivious to the incomprehension they leave behind at conferences, business meetings and on conference calls”.

I am not surprised. While at the UN, I frequently moderated conference calls and face-to-face meetings between native English speakers and native Arabic speakers. All involved were thoughtful, intelligent professionals with impressive educational and work credentials. But the language of communication was English.

Many times I had to provide English-to-English interpretation because I knew that the native Arabic speakers did not understand an expression used by the native English speakers. Even when I stressed the importance of avoiding confusing English to the native speakers before a call or meeting, they would often forget and lapse into colloquialisms.

In his article, Skapinker cites a 2015 survey of a Nato working group that found that “native speakers of English are not always good at adjusting their English to the manner and level that is used”. This is a problem, not just for audiences but also for speakers who think that their message is getting through when the opposite is true.

Tips for native English speakers

So what can native English speakers do to rectify the situation? Drawing on advice from the book, Is That Clear?: Effective Communications in a Multilingual World by Zanne Gaynor and Kathryn Alevizos, Skapinker offers the following advice:

1.  Speak slower than you would with native speakers.

2.  Avoid idiomatic language. This is language where the meaning is different from the literal meaning of the words used. For example: “hold your horses” (be patient); “piece of cake” (very easy); “loose cannon” (unpredictable).

3. Be careful with phrasal verbs, which are verbs that are combined with prepositions or other words. Different words result in completely different meanings. English has thousands of phrasal verbs.

Take the word “run” which means to move quickly. If you add different prepositions, you get different meanings: “run down” (in bad condition; exhausted); “run into” (to collide with something; to unexpectedly meet someone; to unexpectedly encounter a situation); “run through” (to stab someone through their body; to rehearse).

Another example is the verb “to break”. I hate to break it to you, but if you break into your girlfriend’s apartment, she might think that society is starting to break down and she will probably break up with you.

4. Avoid colloquialisms. For example, don’t say, “we need to up our game”; instead, say “we need to improve”.

5. Be careful with overly polite language. For example, don’t say, “To be honest, we were a little upset with the 1st quarter results”; instead, say “The 1st quarter results were disappointing” or “We were disappointed by the 1st quarter results”.

6.  Don’t fill your slides with words. “Native speakers find them hard enough to read; second language speakers find them even harder. But do put numbers on slides, they say. Numbers can be hard to understand in your second language and seeing the figures on a slide makes it easier.”

Ultimately, it is about respecting your audience. When speaking in English to non-native speakers, you have to adjust your English.

For more advice on the use of the English, particularly written English, see this post that examines George Orwell’s classic essay, Politics and the English Language.

Like this article?

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Linkdin
Share on Pinterest
Picture of mannerofspeaking

mannerofspeaking

  1. Hi John, great post again, I enjoyed reading it. Wishing you a great year for 2020! Warm wishes, Daphne

  2. I wouldn’t say speak slowly, but definitely speak slower than you would with other native speakers. I extend the same courtesy to English speakers communicating with me in Spanish, my mother tongue. Spanish – as a general rule – is spoken quite fast. A lot faster than English between native English speakers, I’m told. So is French. So for us, romance language speakers, normal speed English isn’t too difficult but if you do slow it down a bit, it definitely helps us at the beginning. And this is even truer for people who aren’t immersed in English all day long. Say, conference calls with business partners from other countries, as opposed to immigrants.

    Speaking too slow is definitely insulting as would be interpreted as “dumbing” down things. I imagine it takes practice to find that sweet spot. But I can tell you from experience, if anyone spoke slowly to me, I’d be offended. I speak English as a second language, that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with my cognitive skills.
    PS: Phrasal verbs are the bane of my existence. After 18 years living in Canada, some of them still give me much trouble. I have said foreskin when I meant forehead.

    True story.

    1. Great comment. Many thanks! Fair point on “slower” vs “slowly”; I definitely had the former in mind. I will amend the post accordingly.

      I know Spanish is a fast language. I work in Spain from time to time. I speak French and Italian and have a basic grasp of Spanish so when people speaker slower, I can follow much of what is being said. However, they almost always quickly accelerate and I am left behind. So we have to switch to English or French or Italian, assuming that any of those are possibilities for the people with whom I am speaking.

      And brilliant story about foreskin/head!

      1. Heh, we do tend to pick up the pace of the conversation as we go, especially if we get excited hahaha

        I also have great difficulty. With the verb to blow. So confusing! Like, why isn’t drying your hair with a hair dryer a blow job instead of the other thing? Guess how many times I’ve said the latter when i mean the former

  3. Great article, John!
    And don’t use abbreviation such as OOO instead of Out Of Office… this is very confusing for us, non-native speakers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

3 × 2 =

Testimonials

John delivered a keynote address about the importance of public speaking to 80 senior members of Gore’s Medical Device Europe team at an important sales event. He was informative, engaging and inspirational. Everyone was motivated to improve their public speaking skills. Following his keynote, John has led public speaking workshops for Gore in Barcelona and Munich. He is an outstanding speaker who thinks carefully about the needs of his audience well before he steps on stage.

Karsta Goetze

TA Leader, Gore and Associates

I first got in touch with John while preparing to speak at TED Global about my work on ProtonMail. John helped me to sharpen the presentation and get on point faster, making the talk more focused and impactful. My speech was very well received, has since reached almost 1.8 million people and was successful in explaining a complex subject (email encryption) to a general audience.

Andy Yen

CEO, Proton Technologies

John gave the opening keynote on the second day of our unit’s recent offsite in Geneva, addressing an audience of 100+ attendees with a wealth of tips and techniques to deliver powerful, memorable presentations. I applied some of these techniques the very next week in an internal presentation, and I’ve been asked to give that presentation again to senior management, which has NEVER happened before. John is one of the greatest speakers I know and I can recommend his services without reservation.

David Lindelöf

Senior Data Scientist, Expedia Group

After a morning of team building activities using improvisation as the conduit, John came on stage to close the staff event which was organised in Chamonix, France. His energy and presence were immediately felt by all the members of staff. The work put into the preparation of his speech was evident and by sharing some his own stories, he was able to conduct a closing inspirational speech which was relevant, powerful and impactful for all at IRU. The whole team left feeling engaged and motivated to tackle the 2019 objectives ahead. Thank you, John.

Umberto de Pretto

Secretary General, World Road Transport Organization

I was expecting a few speaking tips and tricks and a few fun exercises, but you went above and beyond – and sideways. You taught me to stand tall. You taught me to anchor myself. You taught me to breathe. You taught me to open up. You taught me to look people in the eye. You taught me to tell the truth. You taught me to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. I got more than I bargained for in the best possible way.

Thuy Khoc-Bilon

World Cancer Day Campaign Manager, Union for International Cancer Control

John gave a brilliant presentation on public speaking during the UN EMERGE programme in Geneva (a two days workshop on leadership development for a group of female staff members working in the UN organizations in Geneva). His talk was inspirational and practical, thanks to the many techniques and tips he shared with the audience. His teaching can dramatically change our public speaking performance and enable us as presenters to have a real and powerful impact. Thank you, John, for your great contribution!

Sara Canna

HR Specialist, World Health Organization

John is a genuine communication innovator. His seminars on gamification of public speaking learning and his interactive Rhetoric game at our conference set the tone for change and improvement in our organisation. The quality of his input, the impact he made with his audience and his effortlessly engaging style made it easy to get on board with his core messages and won over some delegates who were extremely skeptical as to the efficacy of games for learning. I simply cannot recommend him highly enough.

Thomas Scott

National Education Director, Association of Speakers Clubs UK

John joined our Global Sales Meeting in Segovia, Spain and we all participated in his "Improv(e) your Work!" session. I say “all” because it really was all interactive, participatory, learning and enjoyable. The session surprised everybody and was a fresh-air activity that brought a lot of self-reflection and insights to improve trust and confidence in each other inside our team. It´s all about communication and a good manner of speaking!"

Jon Lopez

General Manager Europe, Hayward Industries

Thank you very much for the excellent presentation skills session. The feedback I received was very positive. Everyone enjoyed the good mix of listening to your speech, co-developing a concrete take-away and the personal learning experience. We all feel more devoted to the task ahead, more able to succeed and an elevated team spirit. Delivering this in a short time, both in session and in preparation, is outstanding!

Henning Dehler

CFO European Dairy Supply Chain & Operations, Danone

Thanks to John’s excellent workshop, I have learned many important tips and techniques to become an effective public speaker. John is a fantastic speaker and teacher, with extensive knowledge of the field. His workshop was a great experience and has proven extremely useful for me in my professional and personal life.

Eric Thuillard

Senior Sales Manager, Sunrise Communications

John’s presentation skills training was a terrific investment of my time. I increased my skills in this important area and feel more comfortable when speaking to an audience. John provided the right mix between theory and practice.

Diego Brait

Director of the Jura Region, BKW Energie AG

Be BOLD. Those two words got stuck in my head and in the heads of all those ADP leaders and associates that had the privilege to see John on stage. He was our keynote speaker at our annual convention in Barcelona, and his message still remains! John puts his heart in every word. Few speakers are so credible, humble and yet super strong with large audiences!

Guadalupe Garcia

Senior Director and Talent Partner, ADP International