Language barriers are completely normal when learning a language or when there are many people from different countries and cultures. This can especially happen in multilingual workforces.
Truly, languages and polyglotism are a huge advantage for small businesses, big companies, and professional individuals. But it can also be tough when it comes to coexisting and communicating with one another in the same environment.
You want language to work to your advantage not against you. But don’t worry. There are some things you can apply at the workplace to overcome these problems. So don’t give up on multilingualism.
Here are some tips on how to overcome language barriers at work. These will help you and everyone else, from employees to business partners to clients.
Why You Should Work on Language Barriers
Whether you’re an employee or a boss and CEO, you should work towards trying to fix the language barriers at your workplace. But why is this so important? Here are some reasons and benefits why you must do this:
- You’ll get to understand your foreign and expat employees better. Especially if you’re in a multilingual workplace, this is strictly necessary. This way you’ll comprehend their needs more deeply and be able to target them. Your employees will feel comfortable working with you, and you’ll create a safe environment for cultural diversity.
- If you work on the language barriers that affect you, your employees, your clients, and your partners, your company will grow exponentially. Proper communication among all parts of one company is essential for everything to run smoothly. Everybody will be on the same page and you all will achieve their goals. And if everyone understands you and what they have to do, they’ll take your business to new heights.
- You’ll build stronger relationships. This applies for all people you interact with, from people that work with you and for you to those buying your products or services. And even those that you meet for the first time during a meeting or conference. You’ll be bilingual or a polyglot or know perfectly other tools and strategies to overcome language barriers. So everyone will feel welcome and like talking to you (and to anybody from your company) it’s easy. So you’ll connect with them and make new contacts or buyers, and both are great for work and business.
- You’ll get new opportunities abroad, both as a professional individual and as a company. This will also add to your growth. Imagine reaching international markets; even building headquarters in new countries! All because you worked on your own and your business’ language barriers!
Communicate Through Basic and Plain Language
Have you ever heard of plain language? It’s basically vocabulary free of technicalities, jargon, and anything that can make it hard for non-native or non-fluent people to understand. This way, the language and vocabulary used is clearer for everyone to understand.
This doesn’t mean that it’s not well-structured nor that is grammatically incorrect, it’s just not overly difficult.
Think about it: Sometimes we explain things in a complex way when there are easier ways to explain them, especially to people that aren’t specialized in the topic we’re discussing.
For example: When a doctor explains something to a patient with a lot of terminology, it’ll be more difficult for that patient to understand. Unless the patient also works in healthcare, of course.
So, try to keep it simple.
Speak Slowly
Speaking slower when there are language barriers among all the people talking with you can help everyone understand more easily.
This is because when we’re speaking in our native language, we often speak faster. Or at least we sound faster to foreigners. We might not notice it, because we’re used to it. But non-native speakers, especially beginner learners, will notice it. And it’ll be harder for them to fully understand us.
So, try to slow down the speed at which you talk to them.
If you’re also struggling to understand someone, you can also ask them to speak slower. It doesn’t matter if it’s a business partner, an employee, a coworker, a client…
There is no shame in asking for this or speaking slower. On the contrary, you’re making communication more efficient for everyone.
Work on Your Accent
Oftentimes, when there are misunderstandings, accent plays a very important part in those. This is because our accents can make us sound different. It can make our words sound slightly different from how other people pronounce them or how they sound spoken by a native.
And if somebody can’t comprehend what we’re saying because of our accent, it’ll lead to confusion or misinterpretation.
Even the slightest details can work against us. Think of native speakers that speak the same language but are from different countries or have different dialects. For example: English speakers from the U.S.A and Australia. It’s the same language, but they have different accents. So, some English words will still sound different.
Now it gets even more difficult with native speakers and non-native speakers.
Though there’s nothing wrong with having an accent, if your accent is too strong it can make communication trickier, especially in a business environment.
You might not be able to fully eradicate your accent and there will still be traces of it, and that’s okay. The point is not to fully eliminate it. It’s just about trying to improve it in order to make communication clearer.
Support Yourself with Tools
While you or others speak, you can support what you say with different tools, like presentations with many images. This way, the viewers and listeners will also understand you by watching the presentation. It’s a form of comprehension through context. They’ll associate the words and phrases with the pictures and everything else that is shown there.
Other things you can use are objects that represent what you’re talking about, mind maps, infographics and brochures with tons of images.
One of the most important tools to support yourself is body language and actions. If you gesticulate, point at things, and act out what you’re saying and presenting, your public will understand more easily.
It’s like when you were a kid learning another language. And your teacher or parents would make happy, sad, angry faces to teach you emotions. This way you would link those words to what you saw your parents doing.
Body language can also help others notice that you’re a nice person open to questions, ideas, and healthy discussions. They won’t fear talking to you.
Just investigate which gestures aren’t appropriate in the culture of the people you’re talking to. So you don’t do those gestures and avoid offending them or creating more misunderstandings.
This leads us to the next tip…
Research the Culture
To avoid misunderstandings, you should always research the culture of the people you’ll do business or work with.
This is because all cultures have different ways of living and doing things, from greeting someone to gestures to everyday expressions. So what you do in your country might have a different meaning somewhere else.
This applies for all situations: Formal and informal. Especially at work, you want to create a safe environment where nobody feels insulted.
When in doubt, you can also explain what a certain thing, phrase or gesture means in your country and culture. So everyone understands what you’re doing or saying, and you avoid confusion.
Developing cultural sensitivity and awareness will make for better and kinder communication.
Translate
Translate all the documents, brochures, books, guides and stuff that you hand to the people you’re talking to. So everyone fully understands it and there’s no room for communication issues.
If everybody has a different mother tongue you can translate it into all the languages used. But if you’ve chosen a lingua franca, you can simply translate the things into that language.
But written tools are not the only thing you can translate. You can also use an interpreter when speaking in a language not everyone speaks.
So, for example, if you’re at an important business meeting with French investors, your interpreter can translate everything immediately for them to not get lost.
Go to Networking Events
When there are language barriers, from your and other people’s side, it might feel tiring to try to communicate during an event. Even when networking events are important.
Don’t give up! Practice makes perfect and keep on trying to communicate effectively with others will lead you there.
Sure, it won’t be easy and the issues of having language barriers will make themselves present. But the more you practice speaking with native speakers of other languages, the more you’ll improve.
Networking events, especially those where there are many international coworkers, are a great moment to do this. It’s going to be a more relaxed but still business environment.
So you’ll get to practice your language and communication skills while improving your business vocabulary and discussing important topics. It’s a win from wherever you see it, even if it doesn’t feel like it at first.
Ask If There Are Questions
Right after you’ve finished saying or explaining something, ask if there are any questions or doubts. No matter if it’s during a meeting, a conference, a course, an event, a phone call, or any other situation. Questions can emerge anywhere, especially when there are language barriers.
There can be many reasons for a question to pop up, from those related to language barriers to those related to understanding the topic.
Whatever the reason, you’ll be doing others a favor by asking if anybody has a question about what you just said.
It not only means you understand that communication in different languages can be difficult. But also that you’re patient enough to try to close the language breach.
Choose Your Lingua Franca
A great step would be to choose a lingua franca for everyone to speak and communicate in it. So, there are no misunderstandings, confusion or any kind of problems that could come from everyone speaking a different language.
Imagine a serious business meeting where all the people involved are speaking a different language. It sounds chaotic, right? It could be done if everyone has some knowledge of the different languages spoken there. But honestly, it would still be super difficult, and it’ll most likely lead to pure confusion. Nothing will be clear.
To make it easier, choose a lingua franca. Make sure all the people you’ll coexist and deal with know at least the basics of this language. For this, you can choose a language that is popular, and many people around the world speak, like English.
Even if you have picked your lingua franca, you’ll still have to apply some of the tips above. Just to help the people that aren’t fluent in it.
Offer Language Courses
When you see the people around you, especially the employees at your company, struggling to communicate, you have the chance to help them. You can do this by offering language courses.
Let’s say you have a very valuable employee that really adds to your company. Wouldn’t you want to help them improve their language skills, instead of letting them go?
Now, you might think: But I’m not a language teacher. Well, that’s not necessary!
You can just hire teachers for those employees that need it the most, or hire a company dedicated to giving language classes.
Just pick your favorite company for this. Talk to them and ask them if they can help each of your employees with their particular needs.
Just like some businesses offer conferences on industry-related topics, you can offer language training for your workers. It can be a benefit for them.
Remember that this is not just an investment for your employees’ lives; it’s also a huge investment for your business growth.
Pick Fluency Corp as Your Language Training Program
Are you ready to watch yourself and your whole workforce overcome language barriers? Then, it’s time you pick a language training program to assist you all on this mission.
And let us tell you, we’d be more than happy to help you. Fluency Corp offers corporate language classes with native teachers! Our students learn from highly experienced people that know your target language inside out.
Our lessons are completely customized to the job and your language needs. So tell us what you want and will make a plan to achieve it.
Do your expat employees need accent training? Or is it some vocabulary for business? Maybe they need to improve their formal writing skills. Really, we’re here for any language problem!
The best of our program is that we base every lesson on our Bellieu Method, created by our founder and CEO, Micah Bellieu. It consists of motivating students to speak in their target language using everything they’ve learned in class.
This is the best way to achieve language fluency. Remember: Practice is key!
Ready to start? Pick your language – we have over 10! Choose between our online or onsite classes. And contact us for a free consultation.
