In my 20 years of speechwriting, coaching and conference presenting, I’ve noticed that, ironically, it’ s most often native English speakers who are most difficult for international audiences to understand. The reasons are simple. They tend to speak in their vernacular. They use slang and jargon not taught in ‘school’. They use over complex language,…
You’re an experienced presenter in your own language, you have a working vocabulary of over 20,000 words, you can improvise, answer questions, use metaphor, jokes and the vernacular, what do you do when you’re faced with an audience of native English speakers? That little voice in your head can start you thinking all of those…
I’ve spent 15 years or so travelling the world and talking to thousands of people in the course of my work and I’ve learned some interesting and painful lessons about English as the lingua franca of international business. It’s also a real niche area of work for me now as there are hundreds of companies…