Seven Overseas Dos and Don’ts

by Dr. Art Leuterman, ACB

Much of my career with M-I SWACO and its predecessor companies has involved formal presentations conducted overseas.  Three decades of traveling and talking has led me to develop a short list of “Dos and Don’ts” when speaking outside of the United States.

1.       Speak Clearly

First and foremost – determine the level of familiarity with your language that your audience has.  Many people can understand American English reasonably well but do not speak it confidently enough to respond in English.  Others have only a nodding acquaintance with English and can ‘get by’.  For example, I can read menus in nearly a dozen languages, say “please”, “thank you”, introduce myself and others and utter a few other pleasantries, count and argue with taxi drivers.  I do not however speak their language!

Remind yourself that you are speaking to people whose native language is not yours!!!!  Then remember the difficulties you encountered when you took a foreign language in school all those years ago.  First, you struggled to ‘find the word’, then you struggled to translate from the language being spoken into American English in order to define the word(s) you thought you heard.  Yikes, by the time you figured out the first few words of your teacher he or she had already uttered another dozen or more words which you totally missed.  Assume that this could be what a good portion of your current audience is experiencing.  Therefore, help them out by our word selection and pace - avoid jargon, contractions and buzz words.  For presentations, these should be removed from all of your verbal renditions regardless of the country in which you are speaking.  Everyday verbiage used at home, at the office and/or on the street here in the United States is often at times indecipherable by your audience overseas.   Additionally, work diligently to speak clearly in “word packages”, i.e. a set of words no longer than five to seven followed by a short pause, thus allowing those that can follow English to translate for themselves.  In situations where an ‘instantaneous translator” has been employed utilize a similar pattern of verbal presentation thereby allowing the translator a few additional seconds to find the ‘exactly correct’ word to bring full meaning to yours. 

A frequently asked question by our younger staff members is “Should I greet the audience with a sentence or two in their native tongue prior to delivering my presentation?”  My answer is always “That depends!”  I would never attempt some of the oriental languages because they are tonal and if I get the tone wrong I may well have insulted my audience rather than praising the beauty of the countryside that I enjoyed on the tour they provided yesterday!  If you are reasonably competent then write out what you wish to say in both your native tongue and the intended language and have one of the company’s local staff read and then listen to you several times.  The upside to this attempt at speaking the local tongue is the obvious attempt by yourself to demonstrate respect for your audience and their native land and can be quite successful on occasion.  The downside, which I have personally experienced, is that if you pull it off and manage to sound reasonably competent in the tongue of your hosts for a sentence or two they will either wonder why you did not continue in the local lingua or will begin all their questions in their native tongue leaving the speaker (at least in my case) sorely lost and waiting on the translator to work his/her magic in reverse to save me.

2.       Avoid Acronyms

Never ever use an acronym without first having utilized the full word, for example, instead of “all those UUA forms …”  say “all those United Underwriter Association forms …”, when speaking or writing.  Always define the acronym the first time!

3. Avoid Profanity

At all costs avoid the use of profanity in any form in your presentations.    If you listen you will be amazed at the foul language, ranging from mild to inexcusable, that you hear on the radio, television or see in print.  If you need to shock your audience to make a point, shock them with sound factual evidence based upon good science and solid research.

4. Have a Concise Introduction

If you are going to be formally introduced, develop a concise and humble introduction for yourself.  Leave the flowery, prosaic introductions to others.  If you are going to be introducing yourself, again do it concisely with pertinent information only.  An introduction is not a history of every job you have ever held.

5. Avoid Jokes

Although it is frequently a heavily recommended practice in the U.S. and Canada to use a humorous story/joke in order to ‘warm up’ your audience I recommend that this device not be employed elsewhere.  A joke/humorous story apparently loses a great deal upon translation and nearly always falls flat.  This is a horrific hole to have to dig one’s self out of as a speaker who is unable to communicate in the language of his/her hosts.

6. On Time

Be on time for your pickup ride and begin your presentation on time as per the agenda.  If you cannot be on time, then be early.  There really is no excuse for being late.  Instead, be prepared for any contingency.  Beginning on time is a demonstrable sign of respect for those in the audience that showed up on time. 

7. Dress Appropriately

Class and good taste never go out of style nor are either unaffordable.  Fashionable is not necessarily either classy or in good taste.  If you wish to be adjudged professional then act and dress so!  That includes your shoes – get them polished and keep them that way.