This is the third article in a series called “Improving Communication with Foreign Co-workers.”   In the original article, I talked about how we should resist the urge to reduce the challenges that are associated with communicating with foreign co-workers or employees down to simply being a linguistic deficiency on the part of the foreigner.  In this article, I’ll go into more detail about how various types of linguistic nuances such as linguistic register, collocations, reductions, pace, and idiom usage can have a significant impact in causing communication problems with foreign co-workers speaking English as a Second Language or ESL. ....continue reading article

This is the second article in a series called “Improving Communication with Foreign Co-workers.”   In the original article, I talked about how we should resist the urge to reduce the challenges that are associated with communicating with foreign co-workers or employees down to simply being a linguistic deficiency on the part of the foreigner.  Communication problems can rarely be distilled down to a singular issue but rather often encompass a constellation of factors that can be a little more complex.  This communication issue is no different in that it is indeed larger and encompasses not only the foreign worker but the American personnel and  other factors as well.  One of those factors is the role that culture plays in communication. ....continue reading article

It is common knowledge that our nation is a nation of immigrants.  Because of being recognized around the world as being “The Land of Opportunity,” the U.S. has historically been and continues to be a popular destination for foreigners wanting to come here to learn English and gain experience working for an American company.   Historically, many of the associations Americans have had with foreign workers were in the context of them working in a physical labor capacity type job but in more recent decades, an ever growing number are here working in various salaried professional job capacities from engineering to middle management.   While their growing presence in the workforce has represented an opportunity for American corporate cultures to gain valuable exposure to alternative non-American approaches to problem solving and thought processes, it has also predictably created communication problems due in large part to the obvious linguistic shortcomings of the foreign expatriates but also in significant part due to the varying degrees of cultural myopia many of us Americans sadly suffer from. ....continue reading article