
Ask HN: How to communicate better with people whose first language isn't English - bloopernova
I&#x27;ve recently experienced several situations where upper management thought that they had clearly communicated their requirements for a task, but the person who completed the task didn&#x27;t understand what was expected of them.<p>With that in mind, do you have any experiences or advice for improving clear communication with and between people who speak English as a second language? What policies and standards worked best, and what failed?<p>How do you encourage people to ask for clarification if they don&#x27;t understand? Too often I&#x27;ve seen ESL people very reluctant to ask questions, whether it&#x27;s in person, chat, or email.
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codingdave
Written communication is better for specs on work to be done. It can be
enhanced with diagrams, images, mockups, etc. Bulleted lists are effective for
listing out acceptance criteria and details they need to be aware of.

But there is also a human side to it. When I led offshore teams (from India
and Mexico), I worked hard to get to know them, which included open discussion
of our communication. Sometimes it was just talking to them often enough that
we knew each other's accents. Especially for coworkers in India, we all knew
English well, but spoke it quite differently. They had a hard time
understanding my American accent, so I'd deliberately slow down when talking.
I also would stop the conversation and make sure that if words were not
understood, we had a culture of just saying so and trying again.

We still had times when we struggled to understand each other, but they
trusted that I didn't let that get in the way of how we worked together. They
knew that communication problems were something we could work at, and laugh
at, and was not going to be looked at as a failure.

It isn't all that different than any other communication concerns within a
team - the more you build trust, the better communication gets.

~~~
bloopernova
That's good advice, thank you!

Did you find people receptive to slowing down and repeating things, or were
people embarrassed and wanted to ignore difficulties?

If you have time, may I ask for specific situations where communication was
poor, and what happened to improve it? (Sorry to sound like an interview!)

~~~
codingdave
It did take time to build enough trust with new team members for them to be
comfortable cutting me off to ask me to repeat things. I had to take the lead
for new team members, stopping them and politely asking them to repeat
something, and I tended to apologize for not understanding. I'd let them know
early on that I knew there would be times that we didn't hear each other well,
that it is completely OK for that to happen, and I wanted them to stop me and
ask me to try again. And I'd do the same when I did not understand them.

I don't have specific situations, because it was never a big thing. We'd just
be talking, and someone would say, "Hang on, I didn't get that, try again?"
Not any different than remote calls when someone's audio goes out and you just
let them know that you didn't hear them.

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notRobot
From what I've been told by foreign contractors, verbal communication should
be avoided when it comes to important details because it can be harder to
parse different accents and vocabularies. Email is probably best. Can be
referred to as many times as required, and can easily be put into an online
translator.

~~~
gus_massa
[Hi from Argentina!]

I agree. Try to send the requirements in a written form like email.

[I don't discard the possibility that the language barrier is used as an
excuse by the contractor or by the manager.]

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cborenstein
I think encouraging people to ask for clarification is super important.

One thing that's helped me receive more clarifying questions is adding pauses
while talking. This gives an opportunity for someone to ask questions without
interrupting.

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verdverm
As others have said, write it down

When talking, speak slowly with clear enunciation

