The Hindu Business Line : Mind your language

Last week, I was writing a chapter on `Indianising your product' to suit consumers in India for the book Doing Business in India for Dummies. I wrote the story of how with the cell phone becoming a mass product, companies have found it necessary to customise the gadget even further to suit Indian needs. "Some phones come with unique ring tones and colour displays and one company has rolled out products with features like a special grip and torchlight — targeting India's truckers! That's customisation for you," I wrote.

My American editor, based in the US, came back to me with this question "What is a torchlight? Is it a backlit screen or is it a different kind of light?"

I had to explain: "We say torchlight while you say flashlight."

Intelligent professionals who can communicate in English is the reason India is such a preferred international investment and business destination today. But there are three key areas to think about, where our differences in English usage could cause confusion:

Sometimes it is the words we use which are different, such as `prepone' as opposed to `postpone'. The Western world uses `advance' instead. They get used to our "preponing meetings" or us being "out-of-station" eventually, but at the first hearing, it is an all-new experience for them.

At other times, we are amazed at all the meanings and usages of a word by people from the West . For instance, `time', as my cross-cultural mentor Robert Kohls pointed out, is something to be on, kept, filled, saved, used, spent, wasted, lost, gained, planned, given, and even killed

Some other times we use words differently, either in intonation and pronunciation or grammar. For example making plurals more easily than required — `furnitures', `luggages' or even more often in my field I hear `etiquettes'. All incorrect plurals .

And most often, we are in a hurry. All my clients from overseas ask me: "Why do Indians speak so fast? Wish they would slow down so I could understand them better." On the flip side, students who are Indian professionals say: "Why do Americans speak so quickly, I can't catch their accent." So the moral of the story is that both need to slow down.

So, as noted in our torchlight story above, language differences certainly can lead to misunderstandings. It is especially important for both parties to be aware of things such as the speed of speech and the differences in the meanings of words and phrases, which if ignored can lead to confusion and misinterpretation. There are two steps to reducing these problems:

Don't presume that what you heard was what was meant. "There are more ways than one to skin a cat," an American client said as he left the room. And I was left wondering what it meant... He was talking of adopting different approaches to the problem. So do ask when in doubt.

Don't presume either, that what you meant was what was understood. "Just give me that report, John sir," I said as the report lay close to his chair. John took exception to being asked to "just" give it and not "please" give it... Boy oh boy, I had to do some serious apologising and I had thought the "John sir" was so respectful, but he hadn't heard it at all!

Seek clarification when someone says something. Say things clearly and with no Indianism or Americanism when speaking to a person of another culture. And finally, recapping and summarising are as important in cross-cultural communication as air and water are for us to live.

(The writer is Founder-CEO of Global Adjustments, the India focused cross-cultural training and services company)