[SOUND] How many of you have found yourself in the situation where you're talking to someone from another country, or from another culture, even from another state or city, that you don't quite get what they're saying and you're just kind of confused? Cameron's raising his 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 exchanges everywhere. And some put up a little bit funny picture there, but it shows you that even in simple places like a market, remote place in China, it still exists as well.


But so the point here is, did you know that translation services 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 the things required nuanced cultural understanding? That's sometimes actually beyond the simple language.


And what I'll show you here is a picture of George W. with King Abdullah from Saudi. 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 I think it is under-appreciated in some sense. And sometimes, we all speak English here, obviously, at GSB, but it really dilutes 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 we are talking to someone from another culture. They don't really give you a lot of feedback or we 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 are here to help. So today, we are going to 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 some things are not going across.


And lastly, we're going to offer you some advice and tips so you guys have a sense of one, maybe small things we can do to be very effective. So with that, I'm going to pass off to Funso who's going to talk to you about some of the verbal communication challenges.


Yes, so, what we want you to take away from this class is to stay lit. We 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 in the way of that? Well, in Fred Jandt'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. And how many of us have traveled the world and got into a new country? We're not really sure of what the norms are, we're not really sure of what the culture is or how to shake hands or do those things. Anxiety is the number one reason that people are impacted and 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 the same language, different meaning. I mean, Jeff speaks English, I speak English. Ashton, the other cohort, speaks English. But I'm speaking Nigerian/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 you 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, "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.


[LAUGH]


But that's not what that means. An equivalent may be if 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 you may have to explain that to another person.


Another expression is references. A professor in class asks 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, not everyone's going to understand what you're referring to.


The third one is nonexistent 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 Willem.


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 [FOREIGN], 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.


[LAUGH]


Here lanes mean effectively nothing, direction of travel is kind of a suggestion.


[LAUGH]


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, who was confused but grateful, gestured what he believed to be "thank you a lot," and it's also crowded here. So, he thinks this is like the perfectly efficient use of gesture.


[LAUGH]


And from one second to the next, this guy goes from this calm, relaxed guy letting us in front of him, to just kind of maniacal road-raging monkey man, who jumps out of his car, beating on the hood and the windows of our car.


[LAUGH]


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.


[LAUGH]


But later that night, we learned that to Chileans, of whom there are many in Argentina, the Mexican [FOREIGN] is actually [FOREIGN], which is frequently used as [FOREIGN] or directly translated as "your mother's shell."


[LAUGH]


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 nonverbal 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 more subtle and nuanced differences in the cultural understanding of time, kind of a 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.


Thank you, Willem.


[LAUGH]


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? Anyone? It's a very interesting and challenging experience. I was in the military and I served in the Middle East and then, in Southeast Asia, and a lot of 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 the southeastern Philippines.


So, I've 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 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 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 maintained 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 encourage you, if you're ever using a translator, in fact, just be mindful to maintain rapport and body language and eye contact with your intended audience, not your translator.


Something that to me seems intuitive as I look 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 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 going to own your message, make sure that you craft it exactly how you want it and practice with your translator.


There are 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 in 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 going to 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 going to be communicating cross-culturally.


And lastly, we want to serve as resources for all of you going forward, so I've listed our contact information behind us and some of the geographies that we've exposed ourselves 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.


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