I am typing this text at the New York airport while I wait for my coffee and my flight. I have already spoken at the conference, held a number of negotiations, so it's no longer scary. But it was scary in the morning before the performance, it was scary a month ago in Los Angeles and two months ago in London, when I was preparing to speak with a new topic for me. It was scary before at events in Moscow, where I was invited as a speaker, it was scary in Dusseldorf, Berlin, Dubai, Paris …
If we consider the criteria for a successful performance, good English, oddly enough, is certainly important, but not the main "ingredient". I graduated in foreign languages and master's degree in Europe in English. When I came to a UK company that needed to sell in English - by phone, in person, and during customer seminars, I was sure I could handle it. Working side by side with native speakers, sometimes you don't understand something, you learn all the time. This is a normal process. I was ready to misunderstand the Irish accent and endlessly improve my prepositions, but it turned out that these problems existed only in my imagination.
The reality was harsher - I didn't know how to sell. In English. I thought I could, I had scripts, and I did everything according to the rules of the company. But people hung up and ended the meeting with the words "I'll call you back", despite my excellent English …
What are people really afraid of?
People who come with the request “I need to present and negotiate professionally in English” are most often sure that their main enemy is poor English and insufficient vocabulary. But there is a more significant reason why smart people forget their good English, completely turn off their hearing and stop perceiving foreign speech - they become very scared, because what they say directly affects the result: their reputation, which can deteriorate after an unsuccessful performances, for the amount that successful negotiations will bring.
Moreover, my statistics of business negotiations with representatives of very different cultures shows that only Russians are so panicky. People say that being in front of an English-speaking audience, they are afraid to forget the words that they already know so little, to make mistakes out of excitement, and generally to forget everything …
People are afraid that others will notice their stupid mistakes and point fingers at them (as practice shows, this is a well-founded fear)
People who come to learn to speak English in public most often speak Russian at a very high level. They have a rich speech, they express their thoughts beautifully. Most of the time, they have a fairly successful experience of speaking in their native language in front of very large audiences. They are used to being on horseback, accustomed to being listened to attentively.
And in English everything turns out the other way around - seemingly experienced speakers stumble, like schoolchildren, at every word in front of the English-speaking board of directors and hate themselves for the fact that they need to go down at least one level down. It is really difficult. It is difficult to admit that an accurate literary translation of their ingenious thought is impossible, and most importantly, unnecessary, it is also difficult to accept that choosing simpler constructions, they will not damage their professional reputation.
English is a priori more concise language. Business communication (where almost 80% of negotiators are not native speakers) is subject to the rules: short clear sentences, active voice, first person.
Instead, I often hear long sentences (usually a consequence of a tracing translation from Russian), meticulously correct passive voice and the desire to avoid using the first person by all means. Most often, people use "you" when explaining complex, abstract or completely understandable things, thereby unconsciously turning communication into a lecture. Usually people don't like being told something like "If you want to work with Chinese, you must …". More winning and less preachy would be the phrase "Let me share my experience of working with Chinese investors".
“They don't understand you” is the second fear
In fact, people can express their thoughts in English, but they often say the wrong thing, inappropriately and at the wrong time, simply because they misunderstood the interlocutor. When native speakers speak in flux, without trying to adapt their native English to our "level", it causes panic for many, and for some it turns off their hearing altogether, and a soundproof wall arises between the interlocutors.
As clients tell me, they hear a stream of English speech, but they cannot highlight words and meanings in it, because it is scary not to understand everything. It's scary that they didn't understand one word. What if it was important? A person focuses on one word and tries to search for or come up with a translation, while the interlocutor continues to speak at this time, and as a result, because of one word, people miss the whole meaning of what was said.
We are focused on ourselves and our mistakes. This is normal. Internationally, business is not punished for this. People are much more patient and try to understand the interlocutor more than you think.
Now in Moscow there are unthinkable many courses in public speaking and schools of oratory. Everyone realizes the importance of voice, correct speech, timbre and the degree to which good speech affects the minds of the audience. People spend months studying "secret" techniques of gesture and voice. And this despite the fact that they are fluent in their native language.
Technicians who work in Russian rarely work in English. For example, in many public speaking courses, one of the tasks is to read poems aloud. When I show a video with awards for the best reading of poems in English, where rhyme in the traditional sense is often absent, many people get stuck. In this language, the accents are placed in a completely different way, there is a completely different rhythm (there is not a single study or course that would help people prepare for a performance in a language that is not their native language, I did the first). If you want to be listened to, catch the rhythm and be able to reproduce it so that the wearer's ear picks up what needs to be paid attention to. When people themselves do not hear foreign speech well, it is difficult to understand. Therefore, before you learn new words (they are certainly important),it makes sense to work with the fear "I don't hear" and "I'm afraid not to understand."
Fears are not conquered by technology, but by a painstaking acquaintance with yourself - with the person you become, speaking in another language.
Don't trust technicians, only trust yourself
If you want advice or opinion - the techniques are always someone's, "from someone else's shoulder." That is why they do not take root, stay for a short time, or simply do not work. In my opinion, practice and constant correct feedback are the only tools that bring results. Practice creates its own techniques. It is important to help a person "endure and give birth" their methods based on his experience and only on his insights. We are all very different, and each case is a million nuances and complex shades of seemingly understandable white. Not a single technique (read - instructions) can take into account all the nuances, especially when it comes to speaking in a foreign language, where there are even more halftones, like fears.
Don't trust technicians. Better to fall in love with yourself first, and then with your audience. You speak for them and their language. How would they like you to win their hearts? A good speech is one that is remembered because if it is easy to remember, its essence is easy to retell to another. My main rule of presentations today is to speak English in a way that makes me easy to quote.
About the author:
Natalya Tokar, creator of the UpSkillMe Business English for Ambitious Minds training center, author of business English teaching methods, upskillme.ru
Photo: Getty Images, press archives
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