Have you ever eaten in McDonalds or KFC or a Pizza hut in India? Have you ever tasted these abroad? In India, McDonalds offers Salad sandwich and Aloo Tikki burger. There are people who clear up the tables after you. You will never find so many people working in a McDonalds anywhere else. Neither will you get anything but a blank stare if you ask for a veggie burger. A Pizza Hut still sells Pizzas but do not offer a Malai Kulfi or a Paneer topping anywhere else outside India.
These are all international organizations that try to have as much consistent products and delivery styles as possible. Yet there is a lot of difference in the experience and taste in each of these restaurants. This is because while people’s needs are basically the same, i.e. everyone feels hungry and needs to eat, their taste buds demands different kind of food. The varied cultures also dictate the range of food offered.
Imagine if you have to travel to Timbuktu or Texas or Tokyo to make a presentation. How difficult can it be? Do you think everything is ok, as long as they speak English? It is like food, they also eat Pizzas but their Pizzas are customized to their tastes. So you need to change your speech like the pizza and burger outlets have. The effort to customize is yours since you are the “foreigner” in their midst and if the audience does not understand you, you are losing in the bargain.
Here are some things you would need to check before crossing the seven seas…
- Simplify English: take out all the jargon, complex sentences, words that can have more than 1 meaning from your speech and slides. This might involve a lot of rework and practice. But if you want your audience to understand you, the effort to bridge the gap is yours. For example, ESOP is a word common in India signifying Employee Stock Options. But others do not understand this word. You may also need to tone down your humour because that is one thing that does not translate well.
- Localize: If you are telling any stories, using any names or locations try to localize it – so that your audience can relate to you easily. It also shows the effort you have put in to reach out to them.
- Speak Slowly: Your accent is probably quite new and strange and your pronunciation very different. So start slowly with information that is not so important so that your audience can acclimatize their ears to you.
- Ask questions: This is the best way for you to know their jargon, their problems and also understand if they are following what you are saying.
- Dress appropriately: Take their cultural niceties into consideration. Ask in advance. Wearing a sari is fine in India but it is NOT formal wear anywhere else.
- Be sensitive: You might try to contact colleagues and friends who have been to the country before to understand any social fine points. For example, in the U.S your audience may be quite sensitive to politically incorrect terms like “chairman” because they now use “chairperson”. They try and use genderless sentences (without using he or she). Making adverse statements about race or disability or hurting sensitivities in any other way can not only alienate your audience but also get you arrested. No, I am not joking!
So ask beforehand. Also remember that their body language and common gestures may be different to yours. Pointing a finger at someone for example can be considered extremely rude in one country and “ok” in other countries.
All said and done, remember your audience may have interacted with a number of people from outside their country. They may be willing to overlook small lapses as long as they know you have made the effort to connect with them.
These are all international organizations that try to have as much consistent products and delivery styles as possible. Yet there is a lot of difference in the experience and taste in each of these restaurants. This is because while people’s needs are basically the same, i.e. everyone feels hungry and needs to eat, their taste buds demands different kind of food. The varied cultures also dictate the range of food offered.
Imagine if you have to travel to Timbuktu or Texas or Tokyo to make a presentation. How difficult can it be? Do you think everything is ok, as long as they speak English? It is like food, they also eat Pizzas but their Pizzas are customized to their tastes. So you need to change your speech like the pizza and burger outlets have. The effort to customize is yours since you are the “foreigner” in their midst and if the audience does not understand you, you are losing in the bargain.
Here are some things you would need to check before crossing the seven seas…
- Simplify English: take out all the jargon, complex sentences, words that can have more than 1 meaning from your speech and slides. This might involve a lot of rework and practice. But if you want your audience to understand you, the effort to bridge the gap is yours. For example, ESOP is a word common in India signifying Employee Stock Options. But others do not understand this word. You may also need to tone down your humour because that is one thing that does not translate well.
- Localize: If you are telling any stories, using any names or locations try to localize it – so that your audience can relate to you easily. It also shows the effort you have put in to reach out to them.
- Speak Slowly: Your accent is probably quite new and strange and your pronunciation very different. So start slowly with information that is not so important so that your audience can acclimatize their ears to you.
- Ask questions: This is the best way for you to know their jargon, their problems and also understand if they are following what you are saying.
- Dress appropriately: Take their cultural niceties into consideration. Ask in advance. Wearing a sari is fine in India but it is NOT formal wear anywhere else.
- Be sensitive: You might try to contact colleagues and friends who have been to the country before to understand any social fine points. For example, in the U.S your audience may be quite sensitive to politically incorrect terms like “chairman” because they now use “chairperson”. They try and use genderless sentences (without using he or she). Making adverse statements about race or disability or hurting sensitivities in any other way can not only alienate your audience but also get you arrested. No, I am not joking!
So ask beforehand. Also remember that their body language and common gestures may be different to yours. Pointing a finger at someone for example can be considered extremely rude in one country and “ok” in other countries.
All said and done, remember your audience may have interacted with a number of people from outside their country. They may be willing to overlook small lapses as long as they know you have made the effort to connect with them.
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