Intercultural English: Will This Dog Hunt?

I got a newsletter in my email today that had an announcement about a seminar on Intercultural English that is being presented by Lorelei Carobolante. The SHRM ad copy had the following description "Whether you work in the U.S. or globally, learning the concepts of Intercultural English can improve relationships, collaboration and productivity. Intercultural English ensures your messages are understood around the globe, reduces translation costs and helps avoid misunderstandings. In this webcast, Lorelei Carobolante, GPHR, SCRP, of G2nd Systems, will describe what Intercultural English is, why it's essential to anyone who works in today's global workplace and how it can benefit you and your organization."

I am not endorsing this seminar (though it might be a good one). In fact I am not really sure if I know the official definition of Intercultural English. But I think I have an idea. I teach a PHR prep class that is often attended by individuals who have English as their second language. Some of them are very good English speakers others are still dealing with the challenge of learning, what is considered by many to be, a confusing language. Anyway, one class session I was trying to explain something and I was using a sports analogy. Looking out over the class I saw several faces which had confusion written on them. (BTW, my classes are primarily attended by women, so English may not have been the only issue, just sports talk in general may have been a problem.) I stopped at that point and asked what people did not understand.

The confusion for the non-native English speakers was the use of regional idioms, made even worse with sports analogies tossed in. So I have come to the conclusion that Intercultural English is communication that does not make use of these devices to make a point. Thus making the point more clearly to the non-native speaker. The funny thing is that I also discovered we had cultural English problems even with native born English speakers. There were many "yankees" in the class (I do teach in the South) that did not understand many of the Southernisms that occassionally popped up in the class in both my speech and that of other students.

This got me to thinking that many of us have these same problems in our workplaces or at least in different regions of the country. Locales with heavy Hispanic or Asian populations will certainly encounter this. You even encounter this with native English speakers who make very heavy use of local dialect. And even though you may have English only rules and people will be making great strides in learning English most classes that teach English do not teach "regionalisms."

So the next time Y'all are trying communicate and the homies aren't picking it up remember to take another trip around the bases, take another shot at the basket and revise what you are trying to say. Youse guys with? Think "that dog will hunt?" Eh?

Leave some comments on your experiences with cultural language issues.

How To Increase Creativity: Tips for HR

Valeria Maltoni, author of the blog Coversation Agent (and other blogs), wrote a great blog on Creativity and Outcome . She stated that creativity can be hard work, however, she gives some tips for how you can introduce creativity into your daily "routine" by getting out of your daily routine. Click on the link above to see what those tips are.

I am a big believer that being creative and being non-routine is a vital skill for the human resources professional. When I am teaching classes to HR professionals and HR professional wanna-bes I talk about the importance of environmental scanning. This is necessary to be a proactive, forward thinking HR professional. You have to be able to recognize what is happening that may affect your employee population and your company's ability to attract and retain those employees. And this skill takes creativity! It requires you to get out of your routines, which for many of us have become ruts, and to view the world from a different perspective. As Maltoni says "Creativity happens by design." So read her tips on becoming more creative or elastic by freeing yourself from your routines and start on the road to being a better human resources professional. You will be more interested, more interesting, more valuable and as a result probably better paid.

"Gee that was funny"- The Value of Humor in the Workplace

Chris Robert, an assistant professor of management at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said that humor is good in the workplace, according to an article in MU News Bureau. "Occasional humor among colleagues, he said, enhances creativity, department cohesiveness and overall performance. The conclusion was made by examining theories on humor and integrating literature from a wide variety of disciplines that touch on the subject." The article goes on to quote him saying "...Humor isn’t incompatible with goals of the workplace. It’s not incompatible with the organization’s desire to be competitive. In fact, we argue that humor is pretty important. It’s not just clowning around and having fun; it has meaningful impact on cohesiveness in the workplace and communication quality among workers. The ability to appreciate humor, the ability to laugh and make other people laugh actually has physiological effects on the body that cause people to become more bonded.”

I have always thought that humor was good in the workplace. I have always enjoyed hearing and telling a good joke or funny story. Just as in personal relationships, humor is important to make the person or people you are dealing with more "human." Of course, since this is an HR blog I must point out that the humor needs to be work appropriate otherwise you run the risk of stepping on someone's sensibilities. It is also important to point out, as did Robert, that humor has a major cultural component to it and may not have a universal translation.

I just know that having a co-worker putting a smile on my face makes the day go by much more smoothly.