Growing up in the ’80s in a blue-collar neighborhood in a suburbia of the United States meant, for many, that you do not experience any languages other than the one you speak, which was most likely English. Sure, you may have had to take a language in middle school and high school, but the reality is, that it was at best an echo chamber of poor pronunciation and kindergartenesque alphabet memorization. You did not really have to learn how to speak the language you were in class for, and you most definitely did not have to learn to listen to it. The reason was it just did not matter. At that time no other language was necessary thus no real effort was made to learn or listen to one. This was certainly my experience.
August 27th, 2009, anxiously, excitedly I sit down, for the first time, in front of my desk at my new job. My phone rings. I answer with an exuberated, “Hello, Keith Duzenski”. It was at this moment a reality I never knew existed entered my ears and left me with nothing to say other than, “I’m sorry can you repeat that”. This was my first step on the road of listening to obtain successful intercultural communication.
In 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “the share of U.S. civilian labor force that is foreign-born was 17%” (Statistics, 2020). This means there are 26.7 million foreign-born individuals in the U.S workforce who you have the potential of working side by side with and 100’s of millions more globally you may interact with in some form. Even though English is the international language of commerce it doesn’t change the fact that non-native speakers will speak it with the finesse of their native language. Around the world, more than half of people, 60 to 75% speak at least two languages. (Vince, 2016). As globalization increases and your interaction with nonnative speakers increases, you must make a conscious effort to pay attention to the unique contributions the nonnative speaker’s own language will embed into the English language.
Unfortunately, it is all too common for English speakers to give up and not even try when they hear a non-native English speaker. Listening is not easy, and it does require work and some restraint. We must always remember that if you hear someone speaking English with an accent or their English is hard to understand, that that person knows more than one language and is working very hard to communicate. The absolute very least you can do is to be patient with them. In my experience, every nonnative speaker I have ever worked with always makes tremendous improvements in their ability to speak English over time. I feel the very least I can do is to ensure that I am listening closely and working just as hard to hear what they are saying.
References
Statistics, B. o. (2020). Foreign-Born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics – 2020. U.S. Department of Labor.
Vince, G. (2016, August 12). The amazing benefits of being bilingual. Retrieved from bbc.com: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160811-the-amazing-benefits-of-being-bilingual