Translated from 日本語 • View original With the globalization of teams and businesses, Colorkrew (hereinafter referred to as "Karakul") is working hard to improve communication skills in English every day.
The most common thing I hear about growing up is "I can't hear what I'm saying in English..." That's what I'm worried about.
◆Related article "How can a Japanese person who does not speak English well lead a global team of people from a soccer powerhouse?"
Not being able to hear words = not not understanding
There are several reasons why you can't hear.
First of all, the problem of "I can't understand words".
In fact, even though we are our native language, we don't hear every word when we listen.
When you listen casually, you probably only hear about 30-40%.
Therefore, it does not mean that you do not hear "all" words in English = do not understand.
If you can hear important words, you can connect them and understand their meaning.
From my experience, if you can hear about 10% of the words at work, you can guess 60-70% of the content! (Laughter)
Do you know the context?
If the topic is a topic that you understand the background in the first place, you should be able to understand it quite a bit even if you can hear a small amount of information.
This is why engineers can talk to each other by connecting technical terms. A couple who have been together for a long time can establish a conversation with just "that" and "that"... Is it a little different?
Furthermore, even in a field where you do not have expertise, you will be able to hear much more after you have a solid understanding of the prerequisites and background.
Unkind Speech
For non-natives, the difficulty of listening is to "speak a sentence for a long time". If you speak without intonation, this is already a hand.
This is the same as an email whose content is difficult to understand.
If you preface it by saying that you are going to talk about XX, and then make it a bullet point, it will be easier to understand even in email.
Also, in email, intonation is like underlining or bolding important parts.
The Importance of Being Logical
It's not limited to English, but I think the most important thing for easy communication is to be "logical".
In fact, whether you are logical or not logical affects whether you can understand the content more than the speed at which you speak English.
I would like to give some points.
(1) When there is an opinion, talk about the "conclusion" first (2) When explaining, do not go into the core (details) but explain from the overall picture (3) Speak simply
Just by keeping these three things in mind, the story will be overwhelmingly easier to understand.
Don't Use Difficult Words
It is also important to "match body language to the content of the conversation" and "not to use difficult words".
A long time ago, Naoto Takenaka used to do something called "a person who laughs and gets angry", and that is exactly what confuses the other person.
Also, if you have a habit of using difficult words to confuse people, you may want to make yourself look smarter.
However, please note that people may think that you are actually not good at communication.
Conclusion
What I wanted to say through this article is that "not being able to hear is not only a problem with your English ability, but also because the other person is speaking in a way that is difficult to understand."
Of course, even if you know that, the situation will not suddenly improve, but if you can at least think about the possibility that the other person is speaking badly, you will have a little more leeway when communicating in English.
On the other hand, when you speak to a non-native (foreigner) in Japanese, you will be able to be kind and logical.
Whether you are speaking English or Japanese, I hope you will try to speak in a way that is easy to understand.
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