Communicating with native speakers

Hello everybody!

When we communicate with people in their own language, we obviously want to be successful and get our thoughts and messages across to them. In my experience, good communication depends as much on the way we use words as the words themselves.

 

To put this more simply, I believe good communication depends on:

 

• The situation we are in when we communicate
• The style of speaking to suit that situation
• The mood we are in and how we feel
• How tired we feel (maybe after travelling a long time)

So, for instance, meeting someone in a noisy train station, airport or hotel lobby is not a place that makes it easy to speak in a different language.

 

Also, if we know people well already it make it easier to talk because we don’t worry about making mistakes as much.

 

So, some advice that may help you:

 

*Always keep relaxed as much as you can

*Try to keep a quite happy mood even if you feel tired or stressed from travelling

* Only use quite short sentences and simple language at first meeting “hello, nice to see you!” “Welcome, how was your journey?” These sort of sentences allow a nice friendly greeting in an airport for example. Wait until later, if you can, when you have a quiet drink or meal together for more complex discussions.

At first, try to keep the subjects about things you can talk about more easily: family, food, travel for example. Then later, when the situation is calmer you can enjoy a more complex conversation: in a house, a restaurant, a hotel room, a café, travelling in a car, bus or train.

 

But, for every situation, my advice is always keep as relaxed as you can and when mistakes happen (as they undoubtedly will) just keep speaking until the misunderstanding is resolved. (Misunderstandings are always easier to resolve than we think at the time)