Written by: Sarah Henderson-Sharon, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In my previous two articles, I have shared findings from research I am doing into the challenges non-native speakers face when they learn and use a foreign language. So far, I've gone into detail about creating opportunities for speaking practice and improving pronunciation. Today, I'm going to explore a major issue for non-native English speakers who are either living abroad or who work for an international organisation; learning how to deal with cultural differences.
To start with, here is an amusing story about cultural differences: I have a good friend from Germany. When she was younger, she spent some time living in the UK. One day at work, she was asked "how are you?", and responded that she wasn't very good at all that day, before continuing to explain to her British colleague everything that was wrong. The colleague was rather surprised at the length of my friend's answer as he had been expecting a reply such as "I'm fine, thanks, and you?"! In British culture "how are you?" is an invitation to say something like "I'm fine" with a return question of "and you?" to enquire about the other person. We use this question to initiate small talk or say hello; we are not expecting an in-depth answer. In Germany, if you are asked how you are, the speaker really wants to know and you can answer in detail. My friend was aware of this cultural difference, but had become fed up with what she felt was a superficial British convention so she decided to give a German answer, much to the surprise of her colleague! Another funny story was when I was teaching pronunciation to another German, this time a PhD student in the UK. She had fantastic English but retained a slight accent which she wanted to get rid of to avoid being asked where she came from, something she found very annoying having spent years living in the UK. When we were arranging the times of her classes, I used to say I'd be at her house "at about" such and such a time. After a few weeks, the student asked if I could arrive later but be precise about the time as she was finding my ambiguity very difficult to deal with! I was a little surprised, but did as she requested.
For me, these two stories raise some interesting issues for non-native speakers who live in English-speaking countries:
How far should you be prepared to change in order to fit in?
How far should others go to mitigate cultural differences?
Will you always be 'an outsider'? (and does this matter?)
Let's explore these questions one by one.
How far should you be prepared to change in order to fit in?
I believe that when we live abroad, we need to make some changes in order to fit into our new environment. This is partly out of respect to the host country and includes basics such as learning the language and understanding fundamental social etiquette. My German friend was fully aware of the cultural differences between "how are you?" in English and German but had become irritated with the brief, superficial British answer. On this occasion, she made a conscious choice to answer in a more German way, creating a moment of confusion for those around her! People often worry about social etiquette and causing offence by getting something wrong. I would say that as long as you understand the most important things (i.e., never jump a queue in the UK), most people will be forgiving if you don't understand something and, if you have the courage to ask, will willingly explain things to you.
Of course, it is challenging to work in a foreign environment and there were many things that I found difficult to adjust to when working in Asia (people's inability to queue was a real problem for me!). However, we are all programmed to think and behave in a certain way and living abroad challenges our assumptions about what is right and wrong. Therefore, we need to make some simple changes to our behaviour if we want to be accepted. If my friend had insisted on giving lengthy answers every time she was asked how she was, she may have experienced problems such as being interrupted or not being involved in conversations as her answer did not fit the culturally accepted rules.
How far should others go to mitigate cultural differences?
In today’s globalised world, this important issue is finally beginning to be more widely discussed. One of my interviewees told me that during a team-building activity in her company in America, the staff had to do a quiz. All the questions were about America and American history and culture and my Chinese interviewee felt extremely out of place and embarrassed as she could not answer any of the questions. To my mind, this is an insensitive and ill-conceived exercise that fails to consider all the staff, their backgrounds and their understanding of the world. Activities like this can easily be made more global in nature thereby making them more accessible to different team members. On a linguistic level, mitigating differences might include training native English speakers to speak in a way that their non-native colleagues can better understand. Simple changes to the pace of speech, reducing the use of idioms and limiting cultural references about the host country can be enormously helpful for non-native members of staff. I believe that if an organisation wishes to employ people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds, it needs to ensure that all those people have equal access to speaking up and being heard.
At a more personal level, mitigating cultural differences may include being more sensitive to the fact that some people do not handle ambiguity well and being prepared to adapt one’s way of arranging lessons!
Will you always be 'an outsider' (and does this matter?)
I lived in China for over three years and never lost the feeling of being an outsider. At times, this bothered me and I used to wonder how long I would need to live in China before I felt like an insider. I suspect this feeling also affected the German Ph.D. student as she hated being asked where she was from and was desperate to lose the last of her German accent as it marked her as an outsider.
However, while being an outsider can be uncomfortable at times, living in a foreign country gives you a unique perspective on the host country that the natives will never have. You may be more open to the pros and cons of the culture whereas the natives take it for granted; things that your native-speaker friends think are normal for you are strange.
For example, I used to find it extraordinary that Chinese people continued to wear thick winter underclothes once the warm spring weather had arrived. I used to wonder why they didn’t discard those uncomfortable layers as soon as possible, which is what I did! No matter how long I might have lived in China, I don't think I would ever have continued to wear winter underclothes in warmer weather as my Western cultural conditioning tells me to wear lighter clothes as soon as it’s possible. his may have marked me as an outsider, but does it matter? Why should we lose our original cultural identity, and should we feel we have to in order to belong? To my mind, the answer to these questions is a resounding 'NO!', we should not have to give up our roots in order to fit in. Living abroad is a huge challenge and full assimilation into the host culture may take years. Many people never overcome their initial culture shock and I have met plenty of people who did not like living in their host country and refused to make any adjustments to their way of thinking and behaving in order to make life easier. However, while I believe we need to integrate and behave respectfully, I do not think we should give up who we are in order to do so. It takes effort on your part to integrate, but in my experience, the rewards make it worthwhile.
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Sarah Henderson-Sharon, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Sarah Henderson-Sharon is an expert in helping non-native English speakers overcome Second Language Anxiety: the fear, shame, and anxiety they experience when speaking English. A teacher with 17 years of experience, Sarah became aware of the damaging impact of Second Language Anxiety four years ago. Since then, Sarah has dedicated herself to helping her clients understand and move beyond their fears so that they can use English with confidence. She is the founder of Think Positive English where she offers 1-2-1 programs and a community speaking club empowering members to improve their spoken English.
