Accent Reduction: Native English Speakers Hear you Swear Even when you Don’t?

Effects of Communication Breakdown

In the blog titled “Partnership between Accented Professionals and their Consumers”, we suggested ways for bridging the gap between individuals with different native language backgrounds.  In this blog, we offer ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS.

I was recently discussing communication repair strategies with a colleague of mine, Drew Sissleman.  Drew brought up some very straightforward examples of communication breakdown. Therefore at this time I caution you that in this blog, we allude to swear words.  We do this to simply illustrate with a real-world scenario the effects of communication breakdown.  This blog is meant for both accented individuals as well as those who interact with individuals with an accent.  It is mean to point out through practical vignettes ways that accented speakers and their listeners can improve communication.

Although much practical information is written from the perspective of pointing out deficits and failures with communication, we are focusing on the commonalities between communication partners.  It is just not helpful to only focus on differences.

Accent Causes Embarrassment

Let’s start with commonality number one.  Whoever we are, we all want communication to be easy.  We want it to be easy because it allows for efficient communication to be exchanges.  When information is exchanged efficiently, time is spent building relationships instead of repairing communication.  Building relationships through personal growth was a topic of discussion with my colleague, Drew Sissleman a few days ago.  He had attended a personal transformational workshop.  He shared with me his experience of communication with someone at a personal transformational workshop.

The group participants shared some personal information with the group that had helped transform their personal growth.  Here is where we share the commonalities between a French speaker and his American English communication partners.  This participant passionately stood up and shared how he would cleanse his demons and come forward with the truth after withholding it for so long.  He proceeded to declare that he had “sh-tted (rhymes with “fitted” and would technically be spoken with inaccurate grammar if spelled this way)” on his wife.  His listeners thought he had said he defecated on his wife!  Of course you’re thinking to yourself, that doesn’t sound like an accurately communicated statement.

Accent Causes Discomfort

As you can expect, this aroused discomfort in most all the listeners. In the meantime, this participant did not realize that the group was making facial expressions of discomfort and lack of comprehension.  Shortly into his monologue of transformation, the group facilitator asked for the participant to suspend further sharing with the group.  Knowing that my colleague had experience working with individuals with accents, she called him over.  “Did you hear what he just said?” the facilitator asked Drew.

Drew responded “Not only did I hear what he said; I heard what he was trying to say.  He said that he cheated on his wife.”  Although, in general, at personal transformational workshops, discomfort is to be expected, the discomfort at this point was not the typical discomfort.  The facilitator expressed relief for realizing that was not actually related to any boundaries that she thought this participant had crossed in the sharing of his experience with the group.

Make the Unfamiliar Familiar

The commonality here (Commonality #1) is: We make the unfamiliar familiar. 

We all take something that we hear that is unfamiliar and pair it with something familiar that we know.  Let’s look closely at how this French speaker’s message was misinterpreted.  In this case, the group participants knew of the word “sh-t” (rhymes with “it”).  Even though this French speaker meant to say the word “cheated” with a “ch” instead of an “sh,” the participants heard the “sh” pronounced. They weren’t familiar with any verb “sheet” (they knew of the noun “sheet”-the cover for a bed).  They made that word in the context familiar by thinking that perhaps he said “sh-tted” (rhymes with fitted) and they thought he had made a mistake and inaccurately verbalized the past tense.  Instead of him saying cheated, which is an regular past tense, they thought he took an irregular past tense word “sh-t” (rhymes with “fit”) and overgeneralized the rule using the regular past tense to irregular past tense (and made it “sh-tted” (rhymes with fitted).  They thought he had made a statement about defecating on his wife!

Once again it’s important to remember that we all have this in common.  We take what’s unfamiliar and make it familiar to match what we already know.  Therefore accented individuals can use that knowledge.  If they sense that there is a communication breakdown, they can think about how their listeners are trying to make the unfamiliar familiar, and try to repair it from that standpoint.

Watch your Listener’s Body Language

The second commonality (Commonality #2) is: Our bodies don’t usually lie when we don’t understand something.  Our facial gestures and sometimes lack of response indicate that we may not understand.  The accented speaker can not only use the concept of making the unfamiliar familiar, but use the concept of “nonverbal language usually tells the truth”.  They can watch their listeners’ body language for evidence they do not understand the message.

Communication partners of individuals who speak with an accent can realize that they themselves try to make the unfamiliar familiar and may be INACCURATE in their conclusions.  To EMPOWER their communication repair, they can simply clearly state what they think the person is saying.  You can see how this could have helped had my colleague, Drew not been present during this experience to repair the communication breakdown for the speaker and his listeners.

Questions to Repair Communication Breakdown

If you are speaking to others with English as their native language, in summary, ask yourself these questions:

1. Area people’s nonverbal language indicating they understand me?
2. Did I hear something unfamiliar?
3. Did I check to make sure that the conclusion I made was accurate?
4. Is it possible that my pronunciation is causing this communication breakdown that I see?
5. To check this, I can simply say, is there a specific word that I‘ve said that you don’t understand?
6. If there is a word that someone doesn’t understand but they’re unable to tell me what that word is, can I tell them more?
7. Can I give them more background information that will support the idea that I’m trying to communicate?
8. Can I say it in a different way?

If you are speaking with someone whose native language is NOT English, ask yourself:

1. Have I asked them to tell me more about they are saying?
2. Have I stated what I think they are saying?
3. Did I accurately interpret what they said?

The next time you encounter communication breakdown, remember that the focus is on COMMONALITIES.  Master Your Accent is on a mission to BRIDGE the inter-language communication GAP.  We focus on not only providing accent modification for English speakers whose native language is other than English, but also on EDUCATING ENGLISH-SPEAKING individuals with TOOLS to repair communication breakdown with accented individuals.