| cl | | | | blame communication problems with foreign expats |
| It is common knowledge that our nation is a nation of | | | | merely on the expatâs perceived linguistic |
| immigrants. Because of being recognized around the | | | | deficiencies totally ignoring or forgetting the fact that |
| world as being âThe Land of | | | | effective communication is not merely the product of a |
| Opportunity,â the U.S. has historically been and | | | | sterile exchange of language between two people. |
| continues to be a popular destination for foreigners | | | | There are a lot of subtle but important contributing |
| wanting to come here to learn English and gain | | | | factors that come into play such as cultural context, |
| experience working for an American company. | | | | linguistic register, collocation, pace of communication, |
| Historically, many of the associations Americans have | | | | idiom usage, body language cues, and vocal intonation. |
| had with foreign workers was in the context of them | | | | The first five in that list represent major areas of |
| working in a physical labor capacity type job but in | | | | communication challenge for almost all non-native |
| more recent decades, an ever growing number are | | | | speakers of English because they are largely learned |
| here working in various salaried professional job | | | | through authentic experience within that |
| capacities from engineering to middle management. | | | | languageâs concomitant cultural and social |
| While their growing presence in the workforce has | | | | context rather than from a formal linguistic education |
| represented an opportunity for American corporate | | | | process. Although many (though certainly not all) |
| cultures to gain valuable exposure to alternative | | | | foreign expats working here are able to communicate |
| non-American approaches to problem solving and | | | | fairly competently from a linguistic standpoint, they |
| thought processes, it has also predictably created | | | | often can struggle mightily in the other aforementioned |
| communication problems due in large part to the | | | | communication areas. There is almost no way that a |
| obvious linguistic shortcomings of the foreign | | | | foreign expat could excel in those other areas of |
| expatriates but also in significant part due to the | | | | communication in English that for their American |
| varying degrees of cultural myopia many of us | | | | counterparts come easily and naturally due to a |
| Americans sadly suffer from.While it is clear that any | | | | lifetime of exposure to English in an American social, |
| person who is hired on to be a salaried professional in | | | | cultural, and educational context. Itâs quite |
| an American company should rightfully be expected to | | | | unfair to expect that a foreign expat could acquire that |
| communicate in English competently, it is far too easy | | | | with ease, regardless of his level of education in the |
| to place the burden of responsibility for effective | | | | English language. If progress is to be made towards |
| communication exclusively on the shoulders of the | | | | resolving these communication barriers, our biased |
| foreign expat worker. I say this because the line of | | | | conventional notions will need to be reexamined and |
| reasoning upon which this misplaced accountability | | | | refashioned so that accountability is equally distributed. |
| originates from is overly simplistic. Itâs easy to | | | | |