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Transcriber: Cassie Molina
Reviewer: Emma G
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Let me ask you guys, a question.
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When you see this gesture,
what does it mean to you?
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This isn’t a rhetorical question.
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To how many of you
does this mean great,
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keep going or something
positive to that effect?
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To how many of you
does it mean up yours?
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To how many of you does it
represent the number one?
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So many options.
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But what then does
this gesture really mean?
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Well, here's the thing.
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Like Schrödinger’s cat,
it can mean all of those things
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and none of those things
at the same time.
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It all depends on
the world view of the observer.
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In our Western society,
the thumbs up gesture
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generally means something positive,
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I like it, great, keep going or
something along those lines.
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But several other cultures, especially
in West Africa and the Middle East,
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the same gesture has
extremely rude connotations.
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It’s used the same way
the middle finger is here.
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It basically means up yours.
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And Germany, Hungary and several
other European countries,
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the gesture represents
the number one.
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While in Japan it represents
the number five.
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In ancient Rome
where the gesture originates,
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it was used to decide whether the
gladiator in the arena should live or die.
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What we can say is that
even such a seemingly simple
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and unambiguous hand gesture
is highly context dependent.
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And the same is true
for words and phrases
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which often have
vastly different meanings
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in different languages and cultures.
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This is something we need to be
acutely aware of as global citizens
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because it can lead to serious
miscommunication.
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Let me tell you a little story
to show you what I mean.
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When I was 18 years old,
after finishing college here in Nelson,
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I set off on my OE
[Overseas Experience],
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like so many of us do.
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I headed straight to Europe
and I traveled around France,
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Greece, Croatia, Italy, Germany.
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And what struck me was how easy
it was to get by with English.
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Seemingly, everywhere
I went, people spoke
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and understood English,
even if just a little.
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But it made it so much easier
to get by as a clueless teenager
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in foreign lands and foreign cultures.
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Or so I thought, until one day I had
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a very awkward encounter
which got me thinking.
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I just got a job at
a restaurant in Germany,
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after months and months
of hunting for work
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and I desperately wanted to make
a good impression on my colleagues.
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As we sat together over
a few drinks after work one day,
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a senior colleague told me
that she’d just scored a promotion.
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She was visibly excited and
I was genuinely happy for her.
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I said to her, “Good for you!”
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But instead of a smile and
a thank you, she turned away
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and proceeded to give me
the cold shoulder for the next week.
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I was so confused!
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“Why was she sharing
joyous news with me one moment
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and completely ignored me the next?
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As I vented my frustration
to a German friend of mine,
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she laughed and she told me
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that the German translation
of ‘Good for You’,
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‘Schön für dich’ is
a snarky and sarcastic remark,
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implying jealousy and begrudging
of another's success.
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Clearly that’s not what I meant,
but those are the connotations
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my colleague associated
with my remark.
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So what was the problem?
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Well, it wasn’t until many years later
that I studied geography,
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linguistics and translation at university
that I started to grasp the real issue.
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I realized that meaning gets
lost in translation
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because of cultural differences.
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This is the surprising paradox of
intercultural communication.
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We must communicate,
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even though we may be
speaking the same language.
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Even if two people are
both speaking English
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like my colleague
and I at the restaurant,
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the different cultural backgrounds
can lead to severe miscommunication.
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Think of it this way, language allows
us to encode and decode meaning.
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But to crack the code, we need
a shared set of pre-existing concepts.
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Now, many of these concepts
are passed down to us
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from our culture and
ultimately shape our worldview.
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And the lack of a shared worldview
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is what makes intercultural
communication so difficult.
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Let me illustrate what I mean.
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Here we have person A and person B.
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Their worldviews
have each been shaped
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by their cultural influences
on a broad societal level
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and by their personal lived
experiences on an individual level.
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And together,
these things give them each
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a distinct lens through
which they view life
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and through which they felt
to their communication.
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So when person A communicates,
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they encode their message into
verbal and nonverbal signals,
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which are then sent to person
B and filtered through
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the lens of person B where they are
recoded to reconstruct the message.
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But because of the filtering process,
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the message that arrives
can be highly distorted.
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And as this process
goes back and forth,
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the likelihood of invisible
misunderstandings mounts.
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And I call them invisible
because in many cases,
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one or both communication partners
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are unaware
that it’s even happening.
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Like in the following example.
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An American company
selling high-end tech products
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was looking to break into
the Chinese market.
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Talks and negotiations had been
going well with a potential buyer,
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and the Americans
considered it a done deal.
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To celebrate, they invited
the Chinese delegation out
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for dinner at a fine local restaurant.
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Now, as the Chinese delegation arrived,
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the head of the delegation was greeted
by a junior member of the US team.
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The Chinese delegate asked
the American where he should sit,
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to which he was told,
sit where you like.
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Now, the next day,
the Chinese delegation
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left the US without
signing the contract.
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And days later,
the American team received word
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that the Chinese had felt humiliated
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and were reconsidering
the business relationship.
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What had happened?
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Well, it was another cultural
misunderstanding.
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You see, in Chinese culture,
hierarchy is really important,
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whereas in American culture,
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displays of hierarchy aren’t
really culturally comfortable.
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So when the head of the Chinese
delegation was only greeted
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by a junior member of the US team
rather than the most senior,
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he immediately felt a loss of face.
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Then, to add insult to injury,
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he was told to sit anywhere,
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when ideally he should have been given
a seat at the head of the table
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next to the most senior
member of the US team.
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This cultural misunderstanding
led to an eight months delay
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in the signing of the contract
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and almost cost
them the business deal.
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So how can we prevent these kinds
of invisible misunderstandings
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and intercultural communication?
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Well, it all starts with our ability
to see the world through different eyes,
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to shift our perspectives,
to overcome our bias,
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and to recognize that we need
a shared basis of understanding
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to crack the code of
meaningful communication.
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With this in mind, let’s take a look
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at what person A and person B
could do to better communicate.
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What we can see here is
their communication toolbox,
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and that they each have two
main communication tools,
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the verbal and the nonverbal.
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These are the two ways
in which we can encode and decode
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or send and receive messages
and communication.
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And we can adapt these to suit
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the needs of our conversation partner.
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These are our controllables.
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Verbal communication is
our language, It’s what we say.
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And it works its magic
only to the extent
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that it is shared by
the speaker and the listener.
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Have you ever read
something highly technical
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and had no idea
what it was on about?
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Or try to understand the terms
and conditions of a contract?
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Or had someone tell you a story
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where you found yourself
with a myriad of questions,
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because you obviously lack
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some kind of vital background
information to make sense of it all?
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That’s the power of language.
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It can be used to confuse or to connect.
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And it’s up to each of us
to adapt our language to suit
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the needs of our conversation partner.
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But we also need to consider
our nonverbal communication.
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A lot more falls into this category
than first meets the eye,
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and the potential for
misunderstandings is huge.
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Let’s take body language
as an example.
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Is it acceptable to point at someone?
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What are the implications
of bad posture?
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How much eye or body
contact is appropriate?
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Do certain gestures mean the same
thing in your culture as in theirs?
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Or are you being
unintentionally rude, dismissive,
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or even suggestive
without realizing it?
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What about personal space?
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How close should you stand
to the other person?
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Public, social and personal spaces vary
considerably in different cultures.
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Well, let’s think again about
the different attitudes
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towards power and hierarchy.
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Remember the story of the Chinese
and the American business people
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and how their different attitudes
towards displays of superiority
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almost cost them
a good working relationship.
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Emphasizing someone's superiority
can be a sign of respect
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or make them feel
deeply uncomfortable.
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It all depends on their worldview.
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The list goes on and on.
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Basically, anything that
you consider normal behavior
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is likely to be anything but normal
in a different country or culture.
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Because what makes up
a person’s normal
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boils down to the unique combination
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of the social norms
and values of their society,
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their personal lived experiences
and their entire cultural background.
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So I invite you to consider
how each of these things differ
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and how the combination
of them differs
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to each and every person you talk to.
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I encourage you
to adapt your language,
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to suit the context and to suit
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the needs of your conversation partner.
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This could mean
using simpler language.
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It could mean avoiding jargon
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and steering clear of
potentially confusing idioms
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they may not understand.
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You could also paraphrase,
repeat or tell a story.
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After all, the power
of stories is universal.
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And you can always ask
clarifying questions, too.
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Often if we approach a situation
with curiosity and an open mind,
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we find ourselves blown away
by the multifaceted diversity
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that makes up the human race.
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It’s up to each of us to recognize
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our own often subconscious
lens of cultural norms and biases,
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to realise that we all have them,
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and to understand how they affect
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our personal preconceptions
and our communication.
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If we all learn to make better use
of our communication toolkit,
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we can avoid misunderstandings.
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We can avoid making
people feel left out
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or even offended by
our unintentional ignorance.
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That way, we can all take
responsibility for positive change.
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Ultimately,
more effective communication
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leads to more productive collaboration
and better relationships
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between countries,
organizations and individuals.
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And It is not just
talking to or at each other,
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we can actually end up
on the same page.
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If we can all learn to see the world
through each other's eyes,
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we will be less likely
to discriminate and marginalize,
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less likely to focus on
what sets us apart
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and more interested in
what we can learn from each other.
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In a nutshell, we can be
better global citizens.
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Thank you.
