Speaker 1: How many of you have found yourself in a situation where you're talking to someone from another country, or from another culture, even from another states or city, that you don't quite get what they're saying? And you're just kind of confused, camera's raising its 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 exchange is everywhere. And I put up a little bit funny picture there, but it shows you that even in simple places like a market, in a remote place in China, that it still exists as well. But so the point here is, did you know that translation service 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 those things require nuanced cultural understanding? That's sometimes actually beyond the simple language. And what I will show you here is a picture of a George W with King Abdullah from Saudi. And you might find that strange, but it's actually in their customs to hold hands while two men talk. It just goes to show that it is really a powerful aspect of communication, that all these 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 we think it's underappreciated in some sense. And sometimes, we all speak English here, obviously, at the GSB. But it really belies 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 when you're talking to someone from another culture, they don't really give you a lot of feedback. Or when you lose attention on them, they don't really give you, hey, sorry, I didn't understand. That very rarely happens unless you guys are really close. So, but the good news for all of you guys is we're here to help. So today, we're gonna 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 there's some things that are not going across. And lastly, we're gonna offer you some advice and tips, so you guys have a sense of what maybe small things you can do to be very effective. So with that, I'm gonna pass on to Feng Xiao, who's gonna talk to you about some of the verbal communication challenges.

Speaker 2: Yes, so what we want you to take away from this class is to stay lit. You 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 Jantz'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. I mean, how many of us have traveled the world and gotten to a new country and we're like, we're not really sure what the norms are. We're not really sure what the culture is or how to shake hands or do those things. Anxiety is the number one reason that people are impacted and it 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, Jess speaks English, I speak English, Ash in the other cohort speaks English, but I'm speaking Nigerian slash 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 these, we 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 and you 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. But that's not what that means. An encouragement, maybe you're about to go on a show. But these are idiomatic expressions such as this, that if you're coming from another country, you may not be very familiar with what that means. And it's important to recognize that, that you may have to explain that to another person. Another expression is references. A professor in class asked 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, then not everyone's gonna understand what you're referring to. The third one are non-existent words. And what I mean by that is, for example, if you're speaking Spanish, there's a word that's used in 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 Willa.

Speaker 3: 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 mucho, 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. Your lanes mean effectively nothing. Direction of travel is kind of a suggestion. 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. My father was confused but grateful, and gestures what he believed to be kind of thank you a lot, and it's also crowded here. So he thinks this is like the perfectly efficient use of gesture. And from one second to the next, this guy goes from this calm, relaxed guy letting us in front of him to this kind of maniacal, road-raging monkey man who jumps out of his car and starts beating on the hood and the windows of our car. 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. But later that night, we learned that to Chileans, of whom there are many in Argentina, the Mexican mucho is actually la concha, which is frequently used as concha de tu madre, or directly translated as your mother's shell. 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 non-verbal 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 the more subtle and nuanced differences in the cultural understanding of time, kind of the 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.

Speaker 4: Thank you, Willem. 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? Has anyone? It's a very interesting and challenging experience. I was in the military, and I served in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and a lot of the 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 Southeastern Philippines. So I 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 that 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 I would 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 focused on the translator. So I'd encourage you, if you're ever using a translator, in fact, just be mindful to maintain rapport in body language and eye contact with your intended audience, not your translator. Something that to me seemed 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 gonna 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 and 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 gonna 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 gonna be communicating cross-culturally. And lastly, we wanna serve as resources for all of you going forward. So we've listed our contact information behind us and some of the geographies that we've exposed ourself 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. ♪♪