I work at a tri-lingual company right now. Everyday there’s a mix of Dutch, French and English to be heard here. Needless to say, there’s a lot of confusion about how to actually have a conversation, write an e-mail or conduct a meeting. So after living in a tri-lingual country all my life and working at companies where there’s often as much as 4 languages spoken, I think I can give some general guidelines for communicating.
Verbal communication.
Verbal communication.
When meeting somebody new. Introduce yourself in your own language, he will likely do the same. If you speak the same language you’re all set to go (mostly accompanied by a mutual sigh of relief and happy smile).
If both speak a different language but you both understand each other, each should speak his own. I speak Dutch but I understand French (and speak it also), so I’ll speak Dutch while the person I’m talking to can speak French.
If one of the two does not understand the other, he or she should politely ask the other to speak in his language. If this is not possible a middle ground should be found, which is, in most cases, a third language. I say a third language but I could just as well say English.
The exception to the rule above would be talking to somebody higher in hierarchy where you’ll try to speak his language. If you fail miserably he’ll probably switch to yours but at least you’ve tried.
If both speak a different language but you both understand each other, each should speak his own. I speak Dutch but I understand French (and speak it also), so I’ll speak Dutch while the person I’m talking to can speak French.
If one of the two does not understand the other, he or she should politely ask the other to speak in his language. If this is not possible a middle ground should be found, which is, in most cases, a third language. I say a third language but I could just as well say English.
The exception to the rule above would be talking to somebody higher in hierarchy where you’ll try to speak his language. If you fail miserably he’ll probably switch to yours but at least you’ve tried.
Written communication
If you start the communication, write in your own language, if the reply comes in your own language everybody is happy and the communication can continue. If the reply come back in his/her language just continue switching languages. If the reply comes in a third language (mostly English) continue in English.
Except when you’re initiating a communication with a group, start in the third language so nobody starts complaining. Again when communicating with somebody higher in hierarchy try to use his/her language. Easy huh!
When writing company wide documents, there will usually be a company policy, so that’s easy, just use the policy.
Except when you’re initiating a communication with a group, start in the third language so nobody starts complaining. Again when communicating with somebody higher in hierarchy try to use his/her language. Easy huh!
When writing company wide documents, there will usually be a company policy, so that’s easy, just use the policy.
Meetings
When starting to talk to a group of people, just ask what languages they speak. In reality a third language will be mostly be used (in my case English). An exception seen a lot is when senior managers speak to the employees. In that case they mostly use a mix between the two main languages (in my case Dutch and French) which is quite funny to hear. They start with five sentences in Dutch, switch to French for the next five and so on. It’s strange to hear (because the message is not repeated in both languages!) but it is extremely difficult to do.
So these are my ideas about communicating in multi-lingual companies. Don’t know if it’s of any use to anybody because you need to live in a country as Belgium to have this kind of situation, but if you find yourself in a situation like this, be careful about communication as it can cause great problems and tension when done wrong.
So these are my ideas about communicating in multi-lingual companies. Don’t know if it’s of any use to anybody because you need to live in a country as Belgium to have this kind of situation, but if you find yourself in a situation like this, be careful about communication as it can cause great problems and tension when done wrong.
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