Speaker 1: Let me ask you guys a question. When you see this gesture, what does it mean to you? This isn't a rhetorical question. To how many of you does this mean, great, keep going, or something positive to that effect? To how many of you does it mean, up yours? To how many of you does it represent the number one? So many options. But what then does this gesture really mean? Well, here's the thing, like Schrodinger's cat, it can mean all of those things and none of those things at the same time. It all depends on the worldview of the observer. In our Western society, the thumbs up gesture generally means something positive, I like it, great, keep going, or something along those lines. But in several other cultures, especially in West Africa and the Middle East, the same gesture has extremely rude connotations. It's used the same way the middle finger is here. It basically means up yours. In Germany, Hungary, and several other European countries, the gesture represents the number one, while in Japan, it represents the number five. In ancient Rome, where the gesture originates, it was used to decide whether the gladiator in the arena should live or die. What we can see is that even such a seemingly simple and unambiguous hand gesture is highly context dependent. And the same is true for words and phrases, which often have vastly different meanings in different languages and cultures. This is something we need to be acutely aware of as global citizens, because it can lead to serious miscommunication. Let me tell you a little story to show you what I mean. When I was 18 years old, after finishing college here in Nelson, I set off on my big OE like so many of us do. I headed straight to Europe and I traveled around France, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Germany. And what struck me was how easy it was to get by with English. Seemingly everywhere I went, people spoke and understood English, even if just a little. But it made it so much easier to get by as a clueless teenager in foreign lands and foreign cultures. Or so I thought, until one day I had a very awkward encounter, which got me thinking. I had just gotten a job at a restaurant in Germany after months and months of hunting for work, and I desperately wanted to make a good impression on my colleagues. As we sat together over a few drinks after work one day, a senior colleague told me that she'd just scored a promotion. She was visibly excited and I was genuinely happy for her. I said to her, good for you, but instead of a smile and a thank you, she turned away and proceeded to give me the cold shoulder for the next week. I was so confused. Why was she sharing joyous news with me one moment and completely ignoring me the next? As I vented my frustration to a German friend of mine, she laughed and she told me that the German translation of good for you, schön für dich, is a snarky and sarcastic remark implying jealousy and begrudging of another's success. Clearly that's not what I meant, but those are the connotations my colleague associated with my remark. So what was the problem? Well it wasn't until many years later that I studied geography, linguistics, and translation at university that I started to grasp the real issue. I realized that meaning gets lost in translation because of cultural differences. This is the surprising paradox of intercultural communication. We miscommunicate even though we may be speaking the same language. Even if two people are both speaking English, like my colleague and I at the restaurant, their different cultural backgrounds can lead to severe miscommunication. Think of it this way. Language allows us to encode and decode meaning, but to crack the code we need a shared set of pre-existing concepts. Now many of these concepts are passed down to us from our culture and ultimately shape our worldview, and the lack of a shared worldview is what makes intercultural communication so difficult. Let me illustrate what I mean. Here we have person A and person B. Their worldviews have each been shaped by their cultural influences on a broad societal level and by their personal lived experiences on an individual level, and together these things give them each a distinct lens through which they view life and through which they filter their communication. So when person A communicates, they encode their message into verbal and nonverbal signals, which are then sent to person B and filtered through the lens of person B, where they're recoded to reconstruct the message. But because of the filtering process, the message that arrives can be highly distorted, and as this process goes back and forth, the likelihood of invisible misunderstandings mounts. And I call them invisible because in many cases, one or both communication partners are unaware that it's even happening. Like in the following example, an American company selling high-end tech products was looking to break into the Chinese market. Talks and negotiations had been going well with a potential buyer, and the Americans considered it a done deal. To celebrate, they invited the Chinese delegation out for dinner at a fine local restaurant. Now as the Chinese delegation arrived, the head of the delegation was greeted by a junior member of the U.S. team. The Chinese delegate asked the American where he should sit, to which he was told, sit where you like. Now the next day, the Chinese delegation left the U.S. without signing the contract, and days later, the American team received word that the Chinese had felt humiliated and were reconsidering the business relationship. What had happened? Well, it was another cultural misunderstanding. You see, in Chinese culture, hierarchy is really important, whereas in American culture, displays of hierarchy aren't really culturally comfortable. So when the head of the Chinese delegation was only greeted by a junior member of the U.S. team, rather than the most senior, he immediately felt a loss of face. Then, to add insult to injury, he was told to sit anywhere, when ideally he should have been given a seat at the head of the table next to the most senior member of the U.S. team. This cultural misunderstanding led to an eight-month delay in the signing of the contract, and almost cost them the business deal. So how can we prevent these kinds of invisible misunderstandings in intercultural communication? Well, it all starts with our ability to see the world through different eyes, to shift our perspective, to overcome our bias, and to recognize that we need a shared basis of understanding to crack the code of meaningful communication. With this in mind, let's take a look at what person A and person B could do to better communicate. What we can see here is their communication toolbox, and that they each have two main communication tools, the verbal and the non-verbal. These are the two ways in which we can encode and decode, or send and receive, messages in communication, and we can adapt these to suit the needs of our conversation partner. These are our controllables. Verbal communication is our language, it's what we say, and it works its magic only to the extent that it is shared by the speaker and the listener. Have you ever read something highly technical and had no idea what it was on about? Or tried to understand the terms and conditions of a contract? Or had someone tell you a story where you found yourself with a myriad of questions because you obviously lacked some kind of vital background information to make sense of it all? That's the power of language, it can be used to confuse or to connect, and it's up to each of us to adapt our language to suit the needs of our conversation partner. But we also need to consider our non-verbal communication. A lot more falls into this category than first meets the eye, and the potential for misunderstandings is huge. Let's take body language as an example. Is it acceptable to point at someone? What are the implications of bad posture? How much eye or body contact is appropriate? Do certain gestures mean the same thing in your culture as in theirs? Or are you being unintentionally rude, dismissive, or even suggestive without realizing it? What about personal space? How close should you stand to the other person? Public, social, and personal spaces vary considerably in different cultures. So let's think again about the different attitudes towards power and hierarchy. Remember the story of the Chinese and the American business people and how their different attitudes towards displays of superiority almost cost them a good working relationship? Emphasizing someone's superiority can be a sign of respect or make them feel deeply uncomfortable. It all depends on their worldview. The list goes on and on. Basically, anything that you consider normal behavior is likely to be anything but normal in a different country or culture. Because what makes up a person's normal boils down to the unique combination of the social norms and values of their society, their personal lived experiences, and their entire cultural background. So I invite you to consider how each of these things differ and how the combination of them differs for each and every person you talk to. I encourage you to adapt your language to suit the context and to suit the needs of your conversation partner. This could mean using simpler language. It could mean avoiding jargon and steering clear of potentially confusing idioms they may not understand. You could also paraphrase, repeat, or tell a story. After all, the power of stories is universal. And you can always ask clarifying questions too. Often, if we approach a situation with curiosity and an open mind, we find ourselves blown away by the multifaceted diversity that makes up the human race. It's up to each of us to recognize our own often subconscious lens of cultural norms and biases, to realize that we all have them, and to understand how they affect our personal preconceptions and our communication. If we all learn to make better use of our communication toolkit, we can avoid misunderstandings, we can avoid making people feel left out or even offended by our unintentional ignorance. That way, we can all take responsibility for positive change. Ultimately, more effective communication leads to more productive collaboration and better relationships between countries, organizations, and individuals. Instead of just talking to or at each other, we can actually end up on the same page. If we can all learn to see the world through each other's eyes, we will be less likely to discriminate and marginalize, less likely to focus on what sets us apart, and more interested in what we can learn from each other. In a nutshell, we can be better global citizens. Thank you.