In the international business arena, we meet people with very different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Their levels of English vary, as do their accents and styles of speaking. It is not always easy for people to understand each other, especially when speaking on a video call.

It can be embarrassing if you continually have to interrupt the other person to tell them that you are not following what they are saying. But there are some simple techniques that can help when it is difficult to understand someone. Let’s look at some of them here.

1. Setting a good example

Speak as you would like to be spoken to:

Speak slowly and clearly, but not too slowly. Speaking very slowly can send your listeners to sleep, so vary your speed.

Use pauses. They help your listeners to digest more easily what you are saying.

Stress the most important word or phrase in a sentence. This will make it easy for your listeners to take on board your key ideas.

Articulate your words. This makes everything you say clearer to your listeners. It prevents you from “swallowing” sounds, which makes it difficult for your listeners to make out what you are saying.

If you set a good example, your speaking partners will often try to imitate your style and approach. And this makes your life much easier.

2. Keeping control

It is important to keep control of the conversation:

If someone speaks too quickly, ask them to slow down.

If they speak too quietly, ask them to speak up.

If you want to write something down, ask them to spell words for you.

Ask the other person to repeat anything you do not hear properly. And repeat key words or phrases they said to make sure you have understood.

Do not hesitate to do these things. Sometimes, we hope we will be able to catch the meaning if we continue to listen. But eventually, we lose the thread of the conversation. It’s then more difficult, and even embarrassing, to go back to the beginning.

3. Listening carefully

If you listen carefully, you will improve both your understanding and the flow of the dialogue:

Show interest by nodding or by using encouraging sounds or words. These signals tell your partner that you have understood and want them to continue.

Allow silence so that the other person can collect their thoughts. If you jump in too quickly, you may be interrupting a key message.

Ask relevant questions to check understanding. This is another way of expressing interest.

Avoid finishing other people’s sentences. This is not only rude, it also means you run the risk of putting your words into their mouth.

Summarize regularly to make sure you are still on track. When you summarize, your partner can correct any misunderstandings.

4. Saying you don’t understand

If you don’t understand something, it’s important to say so. You can do this in various ways:

Saying “Sorry?” is usually enough. Your partner will immediately explain a second time — and they will hardly notice the interruption.

If you still do not understand, use another one-word interruption, such as “Pardon?” Again, it’s short and hardly noticed. And, again, your partner will repeat what they said.

If you still do not understand at this point, use a full sentence, such as “I’m afraid I still didn’t quite catch that”.

“I’m afraid…” is a polite phrase. “I didn’t catch that” is colloquial and friendly.

It gets more difficult if you are still not sure what your partner has said. Now, you need to be proactive and guess what you think was said. “Oh! You mean Tuesday?” It doesn’t matter if you guess wrongly. What you want is for your partner to correct you. This they usually do slowly and clearly: “No, I said Thursday.”

5. Being specific

You can also specify any pieces of information you missed. For example, if someone says, “I’ll be arriving on X-day”, you can ask, “Sorry? Which day was that?” This makes it clear to your speaking partner which part of the sentence you missed.

This technique saves a great deal of time and energy. But many second-language speakers avoid it, as it is slightly more complicated linguistically. You simply need to phrase the question in the right way. And this is down to practice.

6. Dealing with native speakers

Their fluency, wide vocabulary and self-confidence in the language often gives native speakers a natural advantage in international meetings. They may also use slang and idiomatic expressions, have a strong regional dialect, speak quickly or use special, culture-bound humour. All these things can make native speakers difficult to understand. Unless they are reminded, native speakers are often unaware of the effect they have on non-native speakers.

Usually, it is enough just to ask your native speaker counterpart to slow down. And then, occasionally, remind them of that. But sometimes, you want them to explain what they mean. Then you need to quickly interrupt them and make clear that you have not understood what they said.

7. Having a safety net

In international meetings, it is good practice first to discuss how the meeting should be run. That should include a discussion of and agreement on some simple rules for how you are to communicate with each other.

For example, it might be agreed that participants should indicate immediately if they do not understand something.

Another rule could be that people should not talk over each other. It might also be agreed that less fluent speakers should be given space to have their say.

One more rule could be that the meeting facilitator summarizes at regular intervals to make sure that everyone is following the discussion.

Sprachlevel
Lernsprache
Autor
Reading time
477

Glossary

Word Translation Phonetics SearchStrings
embarrassing peinlich embarrassing
to digest sth. etw. verdauen; hier: verarbeiten digest
to stress sth. etw. betonen
phrase Ausdruck, Formulierung phrase
to take sth. on board hier: etw. aufnehmen, erfassen
to articulate sth. etw. deutlich aussprechen Articulate
to swallow sth. etw. verschlucken
approach Vorgehensweise; hier: Sprechverhalten approach
to speak up lauter sprechen speak up
to spell sth. etw. buchstabieren spell
to hesitate zögern hesitate
to catch sth. hier: etw. verstehen catch
thread Faden thread
to nod nicken
encouraging hier: ermunternd encouraging
to jump in (ifml.) hier: etw. (zum Thema) sagen jump
to finish sth. etw. beenden, zu Ende bringen
rude unhöflich rude
to summarize sth. etw. zusammenfassen Summarize
to be on track auf Kurs sein; hier: mitkommen on track
colloquial umgangssprachlich colloquial
to be proactive die Initiative ergreifen proactive
to be down to sth. an etw. liegen, auf etw. zurückzuführen sein down
fluency flüssiges Sprechen, Sprachgewandtheit fluency
culture-bound kulturgebunden, -abhängig culture-bound
counterpart Gegenstück; hier: Gesprächspartner(in) counterpart
to indicate sth. etw. anzeigen, auf etw. hinweisen indicate
to talk over each other durcheinanderreden talk over each other
less fluent weniger sprachgewandt, mit geringerer Sprachbeherrschung fluent
to have one’s say zu Wort kommen
meeting facilitator Sitzungsleiter(in) meeting facilitator