[Music]
[Applause]
the CEO of a global automotive group
said they like to joke within the
company that their official global
corporate language is not English but
bad English this wasn’t a negative thing
in fact they were quite proud of it
because by embracing bad english this
funny mix of grammatical errors random
pronunciations and made-up words they
were giving everyone a voice even those
who weren’t so comfortable with their
English could speak up and share their
ideas because they weren’t afraid of
making mistakes they knew that their bad
english was good enough now I know that
not everybody agrees with this
perspective ask anyone in the
multi-billion dollar English as a
foreign language industry and they will
likely tell you that accepting bad
English is a very bad idea we have
language rules for a reason we enjoy
fighting over them and this is true in
any language not just English because
the way we speak is a part of who we are
we can hear through language who belongs
and who’s an outsider who fits in and
who almost fits in but not quite this
was one of the main reasons why I wanted
to learn Danish I’d be sitting at dinner
parties and something really funny would
happen and everybody was laughing and
then the whole room went silent
well someone translated the last five
minutes of the party to me and then all
these eyeballs right in my direction
[Laughter]
you know I thought that by learning
Danish I would finally fit in but even
now when I speak Danish fluently okay
sure I can follow along with the jokes
at the dinner party I can laugh in the
right moments but every time I open my
mouth to speak my accent sabotages me it
gives away my secret that I don’t really
belong but I guess I’m one of the lucky
ones because as our world gets smaller
and more connected it’s impossible to
find work where you don’t have to cross
languages and borders and cultures we
were forced to adopt a global language
and in the lottery of languages English
won that gives someone like me who was
born into English a clear advantage in
global business automatic ownership of
worldwide communication or at least
that’s what a lot of English speakers
would like to believe take a peek into
English language classrooms around the
world and the teaching supports this
idea now I’m not saying that we should
get rid of language teaching of course
we have to have a basic solid foundation
of grammar vocabulary pronunciation
people need to be able to be understood
in the world but we have plenty of
people who speak really decent bad
English who are stuck in these
classrooms and we’re forcing perfection
on them and we’re fixing their grammar
and we’re fixing their pronunciation and
we’re fixing the people to make sure
that they can speak some kind of generic
American or British proper English so
that they can better fit in with the
but here’s what’s really interesting
about the english-speaking world only
400 million of us were born into the
English language compare this to the two
billion voices who have had to learn
this language in a classroom right now
in our world today we have five times
and suddenly on a global stage such as
this one I’m an outsider again but this
let’s take a closer look at this other
side of language let’s see how we can
become better speakers and better
listeners so that we can increase the
understanding in our world today you
know I’ve always thought it was kind of
funny that we try to fit these two
billion people into this little box with
four hundred million I mean wouldn’t it
be a lot easier and a lot more fun to
make the four hundred million
fit into the two billion we’re quick to
assume that all of our miscommunication
all of our global communication problems
they must be the fault of the two
billion bad English voices because well
of course they speak bad English but you
might be surprised to hear that the
exact opposite is actually true numerous
studies on global communication have
shown that misunderstandings increase
when one of the 400 million good English
speakers enter the conversation it’s the
the other side of English is a very
interesting we like to believe that we
have this ownership over the language
but no one owns the English language
anymore the last ten years I’ve been
traveling the world as a speech and
communication specialist helping to fix
these two billion voices they come to me
because people have told them that they
have a heavy accent that they’re
embarrassed about the way that they
speak where they come because they know
that opportunities are passing them by
these talented well-educated global
leaders who are perfectly confident and
eloquent in their own languages want to
erase their accents their identities so
that they will be respected for the
ideas coming out of their minds instead
of judged for how the words are coming
out of their mouths so they come to me
and they ask me to fix them but there’s
just one problem these two billion
voices aren’t broken the most important
skill to master as a global leader
moving forward in our world today is not
the perfect accent what is crucial in
global communication is adaptability as
a speaker being able to change the way
that you speak so that it’s easier for
your listener to understand and even
more importantly as a listener being
open and flexible to hearing all
different kinds of English and really
making an effort to understand the
problem and the biggest challenge we’re
facing with international English is
that there is no one global English we
can’t define it
we can’t put rules on it we can’t teach
it it has to be experienced so the way
that a Chinese businesswoman speaks
English with a Frenchman in Germany will
be completely different than the way a
Dane speaks English with a New Zealander
and Korean in Indonesia what could be
completely acceptable in one context
could be completely unacceptable in
another with different speakers from
different backgrounds and cultures this
is why when I’m working with a speaker
for the first time and they come to me
because they’re getting ready for a big
presentation or they just want to
survive the next international
conference call the first thing I ask
them is who are your listeners where are
they from what’s their language level
what kind of cultural differences do we
need to take into consideration how do
they hear the language these aren’t
always easy questions and it’s very
possible you’ve never thought about them
before but if all of us both the good
English speakers and the much more
common bad English speakers if we all
went into our conversations with our
listener in mind our communication would
work a lot better we need a lot more
research on English as a lingua franca a
common language but studies suggest and
I’ve seen this to be true in my work
that there are certain sounds that when
articulated just right make it easier
for your listener to understand and
there are other English sounds that make
absolutely no difference whatsoever so
for example if you take the letter T and
you pronounce it as a nice crisp T in
words like internet clarity water it’s
going to be easier for your listener to
understand they can wrap their ears
around that sound and understand you
better the same is true for a stronger
pronunciation of the R sound
something that we commonly think is
really unique although it isn’t to the
American dialects of English on the
other hand how about that terrible th
you know that or the sound that every
single one of the two billion voices
struggles with making it totally
impossible to tell anybody that they’re
thinking about 3333 things well guess
what that sound it doesn’t matter not at
all and I’m sure many of you right now
are really angry with your English
teachers but we know that you can change
that sound you can switch it out for
something else and as long as you are
consistently pronouncing the th with
that sound
everyone will tune their ears and
understand so what we’re seeing when we
go in to global settings and look at the
pronunciation being used we’re moving
away from this idealized accent the
Queen’s English and are focusing instead
on clarity and understanding but these
are just our sounds this is the science
of speech the physicality of
pronunciation and articulation this is
just one a very small part of our speech
to have good communication we need a lot
more so as speakers we need to remember
when we go into global settings we are
gonna run right into other languages and
cultures and when we grow up in a
language it becomes such a deep part of
us that we don’t even realize when we’re
saying something that’s culturally based
ask any American to rephrase these very
common phrases to touch base out in
left-field in the end zone many
Americans will struggle because these
phrases are such completely common
everyday parts of our American
vocabulary we don’t even start to
realize that they come directly from
you can expect someone to understand
your language but you can’t expect them
to understand your culture this is why
it’s so important for us to drop the jar
again the slang the business speak the
sports analogies even the good English
speakers can’t understand each other
when they forget that they come from
different cultures but this is still all
just focusing on the speaker what about
our listener what I said earlier is even
more important and the reason why I
believe that is because we never talk
about them when you are going into any
kind of global conversation it’s so
important to remember that you need to
make an effort a lot of people get
frustrated hearing different accents
always so hard to understand and they
don’t want to talk to that person
anymore but when you understand how
accents work they actually are like this
fun little puzzle that you can figure
out we have accents because every single
language has its own sound system so
when we grow up learning a language we
learn that sound system and we learn to
perfectly imitate and mimic the sounds
of that system but we know that at some
point along the way of growing up we
don’t know exactly one but somewhere in
the early teens we lose this ability to
perfectly mimic sounds so what happens
when we meet a new language is we have
to go back to our old sound systems and
we try to approximate the correct sound
that would fit that new sound so when
you understand how this works
all you really have to do is crack the
code once you know how the sounds are
switched it gets really easy to
understand an accent and something like
this can be taught but these are just
sounds tone and emphasis a little more
tricky we get so much information from
tone you can hear when someone is
when they’re happy when they’re sad when
they’re angry when they’re stressed you
can hear when your friend is smiling on
the telephone that’s how important our
tone is but unfortunately tone doesn’t
translate well even in our own languages
think of how many different ways you
could say the words yeah right yeah
right yeah right yeah right and this is
just in our own language when we’re in
global settings we cannot make any
assumptions if somebody says something
you think is totally outrageous
chances are you misunderstood we need to
enter every single interaction as if
it’s an exploration always questioning
always curious checking for
understanding asking for clarification
and always giving the benefit of the
doubt what we also need to do is simply
be better listeners all of us need to
have more contact with different
varieties of accented English from all
over the world because the more we hear
these languages and accents the easier
they are for us to understand we have so
many courses out there I run some of
them that are stripping the accents and
stripping the identities away from the
two billion people we’re sending them to
these courses called accent reduction I
think it’s time for us to start
considering having a lot more courses on
accent recognition where global leaders
learn and appreciate the different
accents that they are going to come into
contact with in their work where they
begin to value and accept and see the
beauty in our differences instead of
trying to
judge and mask them we’re always so
focused on learning how to speak so that
others want to listen why don’t we start
listening so that people want to speak I
am convinced that we are nowhere near
reaching our potential in this world one
of the biggest reasons is because too
many people are afraid to speak up
they’re afraid of their bad English
they’re afraid of being judged maybe
it’s time for us to stop fixing all the
bad and start redefining what is good so
please I’m begging you keep speaking up
keep sharing your ideas with the world
because as long as you can understand
and you’re being understood then you’re
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
[Applause]
the CEO of a global automotive group
said they like to joke within the
company that their official global
corporate language is not English but
bad English this wasn’t a negative thing
in fact they were quite proud of it
because by embracing bad english this
funny mix of grammatical errors random
pronunciations and made-up words they
were giving everyone a voice even those
who weren’t so comfortable with their
English could speak up and share their
ideas because they weren’t afraid of
making mistakes they knew that their bad
english was good enough now I know that
not everybody agrees with this
perspective ask anyone in the
multi-billion dollar English as a
foreign language industry and they will
likely tell you that accepting bad
English is a very bad idea we have
language rules for a reason we enjoy
fighting over them and this is true in
any language not just English because
the way we speak is a part of who we are
we can hear through language who belongs
and who’s an outsider who fits in and
who almost fits in but not quite this
was one of the main reasons why I wanted
to learn Danish I’d be sitting at dinner
parties and something really funny would
happen and everybody was laughing and
then the whole room went silent
well someone translated the last five
minutes of the party to me and then all
these eyeballs right in my direction
[Laughter]
you know I thought that by learning
Danish I would finally fit in but even
now when I speak Danish fluently okay
sure I can follow along with the jokes
at the dinner party I can laugh in the
right moments but every time I open my
mouth to speak my accent sabotages me it
gives away my secret that I don’t really
belong but I guess I’m one of the lucky
ones because as our world gets smaller
and more connected it’s impossible to
find work where you don’t have to cross
languages and borders and cultures we
were forced to adopt a global language
and in the lottery of languages English
won that gives someone like me who was
born into English a clear advantage in
global business automatic ownership of
worldwide communication or at least
that’s what a lot of English speakers
would like to believe take a peek into
English language classrooms around the
world and the teaching supports this
idea now I’m not saying that we should
get rid of language teaching of course
we have to have a basic solid foundation
of grammar vocabulary pronunciation
people need to be able to be understood
in the world but we have plenty of
people who speak really decent bad
English who are stuck in these
classrooms and we’re forcing perfection
on them and we’re fixing their grammar
and we’re fixing their pronunciation and
we’re fixing the people to make sure
that they can speak some kind of generic
American or British proper English so
that they can better fit in with the
but here’s what’s really interesting
about the english-speaking world only
400 million of us were born into the
English language compare this to the two
billion voices who have had to learn
this language in a classroom right now
in our world today we have five times
and suddenly on a global stage such as
this one I’m an outsider again but this
let’s take a closer look at this other
side of language let’s see how we can
become better speakers and better
listeners so that we can increase the
understanding in our world today you
know I’ve always thought it was kind of
funny that we try to fit these two
billion people into this little box with
four hundred million I mean wouldn’t it
be a lot easier and a lot more fun to
make the four hundred million
fit into the two billion we’re quick to
assume that all of our miscommunication
all of our global communication problems
they must be the fault of the two
billion bad English voices because well
of course they speak bad English but you
might be surprised to hear that the
exact opposite is actually true numerous
studies on global communication have
shown that misunderstandings increase
when one of the 400 million good English
speakers enter the conversation it’s the
the other side of English is a very
interesting we like to believe that we
have this ownership over the language
but no one owns the English language
anymore the last ten years I’ve been
traveling the world as a speech and
communication specialist helping to fix
these two billion voices they come to me
because people have told them that they
have a heavy accent that they’re
embarrassed about the way that they
speak where they come because they know
that opportunities are passing them by
these talented well-educated global
leaders who are perfectly confident and
eloquent in their own languages want to
erase their accents their identities so
that they will be respected for the
ideas coming out of their minds instead
of judged for how the words are coming
out of their mouths so they come to me
and they ask me to fix them but there’s
just one problem these two billion
voices aren’t broken the most important
skill to master as a global leader
moving forward in our world today is not
the perfect accent what is crucial in
global communication is adaptability as
a speaker being able to change the way
that you speak so that it’s easier for
your listener to understand and even
more importantly as a listener being
open and flexible to hearing all
different kinds of English and really
making an effort to understand the
problem and the biggest challenge we’re
facing with international English is
that there is no one global English we
can’t define it
we can’t put rules on it we can’t teach
it it has to be experienced so the way
that a Chinese businesswoman speaks
English with a Frenchman in Germany will
be completely different than the way a
Dane speaks English with a New Zealander
and Korean in Indonesia what could be
completely acceptable in one context
could be completely unacceptable in
another with different speakers from
different backgrounds and cultures this
is why when I’m working with a speaker
for the first time and they come to me
because they’re getting ready for a big
presentation or they just want to
survive the next international
conference call the first thing I ask
them is who are your listeners where are
they from what’s their language level
what kind of cultural differences do we
need to take into consideration how do
they hear the language these aren’t
always easy questions and it’s very
possible you’ve never thought about them
before but if all of us both the good
English speakers and the much more
common bad English speakers if we all
went into our conversations with our
listener in mind our communication would
work a lot better we need a lot more
research on English as a lingua franca a
common language but studies suggest and
I’ve seen this to be true in my work
that there are certain sounds that when
articulated just right make it easier
for your listener to understand and
there are other English sounds that make
absolutely no difference whatsoever so
for example if you take the letter T and
you pronounce it as a nice crisp T in
words like internet clarity water it’s
going to be easier for your listener to
understand they can wrap their ears
around that sound and understand you
better the same is true for a stronger
pronunciation of the R sound
something that we commonly think is
really unique although it isn’t to the
American dialects of English on the
other hand how about that terrible th
you know that or the sound that every
single one of the two billion voices
struggles with making it totally
impossible to tell anybody that they’re
thinking about 3333 things well guess
what that sound it doesn’t matter not at
all and I’m sure many of you right now
are really angry with your English
teachers but we know that you can change
that sound you can switch it out for
something else and as long as you are
consistently pronouncing the th with
that sound
everyone will tune their ears and
understand so what we’re seeing when we
go in to global settings and look at the
pronunciation being used we’re moving
away from this idealized accent the
Queen’s English and are focusing instead
on clarity and understanding but these
are just our sounds this is the science
of speech the physicality of
pronunciation and articulation this is
just one a very small part of our speech
to have good communication we need a lot
more so as speakers we need to remember
when we go into global settings we are
gonna run right into other languages and
cultures and when we grow up in a
language it becomes such a deep part of
us that we don’t even realize when we’re
saying something that’s culturally based
ask any American to rephrase these very
common phrases to touch base out in
left-field in the end zone many
Americans will struggle because these
phrases are such completely common
everyday parts of our American
vocabulary we don’t even start to
realize that they come directly from
you can expect someone to understand
your language but you can’t expect them
to understand your culture this is why
it’s so important for us to drop the jar
again the slang the business speak the
sports analogies even the good English
speakers can’t understand each other
when they forget that they come from
different cultures but this is still all
just focusing on the speaker what about
our listener what I said earlier is even
more important and the reason why I
believe that is because we never talk
about them when you are going into any
kind of global conversation it’s so
important to remember that you need to
make an effort a lot of people get
frustrated hearing different accents
always so hard to understand and they
don’t want to talk to that person
anymore but when you understand how
accents work they actually are like this
fun little puzzle that you can figure
out we have accents because every single
language has its own sound system so
when we grow up learning a language we
learn that sound system and we learn to
perfectly imitate and mimic the sounds
of that system but we know that at some
point along the way of growing up we
don’t know exactly one but somewhere in
the early teens we lose this ability to
perfectly mimic sounds so what happens
when we meet a new language is we have
to go back to our old sound systems and
we try to approximate the correct sound
that would fit that new sound so when
you understand how this works
all you really have to do is crack the
code once you know how the sounds are
switched it gets really easy to
understand an accent and something like
this can be taught but these are just
sounds tone and emphasis a little more
tricky we get so much information from
tone you can hear when someone is
when they’re happy when they’re sad when
they’re angry when they’re stressed you
can hear when your friend is smiling on
the telephone that’s how important our
tone is but unfortunately tone doesn’t
translate well even in our own languages
think of how many different ways you
could say the words yeah right yeah
right yeah right yeah right and this is
just in our own language when we’re in
global settings we cannot make any
assumptions if somebody says something
you think is totally outrageous
chances are you misunderstood we need to
enter every single interaction as if
it’s an exploration always questioning
always curious checking for
understanding asking for clarification
and always giving the benefit of the
doubt what we also need to do is simply
be better listeners all of us need to
have more contact with different
varieties of accented English from all
over the world because the more we hear
these languages and accents the easier
they are for us to understand we have so
many courses out there I run some of
them that are stripping the accents and
stripping the identities away from the
two billion people we’re sending them to
these courses called accent reduction I
think it’s time for us to start
considering having a lot more courses on
accent recognition where global leaders
learn and appreciate the different
accents that they are going to come into
contact with in their work where they
begin to value and accept and see the
beauty in our differences instead of
trying to
judge and mask them we’re always so
focused on learning how to speak so that
others want to listen why don’t we start
listening so that people want to speak I
am convinced that we are nowhere near
reaching our potential in this world one
of the biggest reasons is because too
many people are afraid to speak up
they’re afraid of their bad English
they’re afraid of being judged maybe
it’s time for us to stop fixing all the
bad and start redefining what is good so
please I’m begging you keep speaking up
keep sharing your ideas with the world
because as long as you can understand
and you’re being understood then you’re
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
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