Ep 115 Will Grammar Mistakes Destroy My Credibility April 24, 2016

What do you do if you're speaking in a foreign language and you're worried about your grammar?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media, at work and in life. Speaking with TJ Walker.

This question comes from one of my online students from the Udemy platform. This is from Laila Babakar. She writes that she's an international student, has fear of public speaking in English. Says TJ I am a student in Canada and English is not my first language. I have a fear of public speaking even in the classroom. I always feel that I'm not fluent enough to speak, even in a small classroom discussion. This fear makes me have a lot of grammar mistakes too. Please, can you help overcome this problem? Well, Lila, first of all, congratulations for speaking numerous languages. It means you're a lot smarter and better equipped in the modern world than I am because I unfortunately only speak one language. So for starters, give yourself a little credit for even trying. I speak a few words of Spanish. Mi es bano es malissimo. And that's about the extent of my Spanish and the ability to speak in another language. So first of all, give yourself a little credit there. Next, with respect to grammar, here's what I have found. When it comes to grammar, if you're speaking in your own language, your native language, you're speaking to other people where that's their native language. Yeah. If you make a lot of grammar mistakes and they're egregious mistakes, that can be held against you and people can notice that. But if you're speaking in a language that isn't your first language, people tend to give you credit for having the ability to speak in other languages. They tend to be more forgiving. Here's what I found is more important. Are you saying something interesting to that audience? Whether it's five students sitting around a table in a classroom or 5,000 customers at a huge convention, if you're saying something interesting and people can understand you and they get the sense that you care about helping them, they will completely forgive any grammar mistakes you have. They probably won't even notice any grammar mistakes you're making. More on this in a moment.

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I work with a lot of people all over the world in English, unfortunately, because I only speak English and English is not their first language. So in the last year I've done trainings in Cairo, Lebanon, Geneva, Bangkok, you name it, and I've had The privilege of working with a lot of very talented people, some of whom speak eight languages. So I am always humbled by that fact that they know so many languages and I don't. But here's what I notice. The people who tell me they're worried about the grammar are typically the people where that's the least problem. I mean, their grammar is often excellent. Their grammar is often better than people I know who grew up in the United States speaking English and frankly, have no excuses. So I always find it odd and curious that people who are worried about it tend to be the people with the best grammar. Doesn't mean it's not possible for you to have bad grammar. It's just that's my observation. Second of all, don't worry about your grammar. If you're writing a paper for publication, for a book, an important blog post, press release, by all means, take the time to edit it, refine it, review it, critique it, make sure the grammar is perfect. But there is a grammar for the ear, and it's not the same as the grammar for the eye. The grammar for the ear. As long as people can understand you, as long as it makes sense, they will forgive an occasional double negative or an ain't, or a word that isn't quite right or something else that doesn't make perfect sense. They will forgive you. They will forgive sentence fragments. They will forgive run on sentences. They will certainly forgive repetition. Because the ear processes words differently than the eye. The eye is much less forgiving. You can reread a sentence and spot a grammar mistake. You can underline it. You can email it to someone else. Did you see this clown, tj? The grammar mistakes he's making? You can't do that nearly as easily when someone is speaking to you, Especially if it's live and it's not being video recorded and there's no playback. So I'm not suggesting. Don't worry about your grammar. All things being equal, the more you learn about good grammar in any language you plan on speaking in, the better. But the far bigger issue, I believe, is do you have something interesting to say and can you say it in a compelling way? If you're in a classroom and there's a discussion and you kind of meekly raise your hand and you're barely speaking louder than a mouse. The problem with how you're presenting isn't your grammar. The problem is you sound scared of your own shit. I'm not suggesting. Well, that's how you're coming across. But that's just an example of What I believe would undercut you much more so than grammar. Now, the other big issue I find many people have when they are speaking in a language other than their native language is they are insecure about their vocabulary. And here the huge irony is I find speakers with a smaller vocabulary actually are better speakers. They are more effective to their audience because they're not using big, fancy words. They're not trying to show everyone how smart they are. They're not using words that people have to look up in a dictionary. So someone who only knows, for example, 2,000 words in a language can often give a better speech, a more effective speech, than a highly literate, educated person who knows 100 or 150,000 words in the language. Because most people, day in and day out, only use a couple thousand words. So if your entire base of vocabulary is the same that people use on a regular basis, it's going to make you sound more conversational. It's going to make you easy to understand. It means you're going to have less jargon, fewer buzzwords, fewer insider lingo, fewer acronyms. And it often makes it easier for people to understand you. Now, here's the big thing about accent. The world is a different place than when I was growing up. You turn on the television. Newscasters, for the most part, looked the same and sounded the same. They all sounded like they were from the Midwest. They all sort of looked. There were exceptions, but for the most part, there was a standard American accent. And even having a Southern accent was a little bit of a taboo if you wanted to be seen as a credible communicator broadcaster. People sounded like Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, who retired not that many years ago, just a little more than a decade ago, and is still on the ear, that Midwestern, rich, resonant voice. That's what you had to be. It's not like that anymore. You can be a successful broadcaster and have an accent from a different culture, from a different continent, and still be successful in the United States, certainly as a speaker and as a communicator. You can have a different accent as long as people can understand you. Deepak Chopra has a strong Indian accent, and he's a lot more successful than I am. People love going to his speeches, his lectures, his seminars, and they read his books. And his accent certainly doesn't hurt him. You could make the case it even helps him by making him sound different. Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post fame has a strong Greek accent. Doesn't seem to hurt her career. She's in huge demand as a speaker, as a guest on TV programs, radio programs all over the world. And oh, by the way, she sold her company for more than $300 million and got to keep a huge chunk of that. So wildly successful person has an accent. Now, the differentiator with accents is if the average person in the country you're speaking to can't understand you. If your accent is so strong, even though your vocabulary is okay and your grammar is okay, then we do have a problem. Many times the issue is simply speaking a little louder and a little softer. Now, again, this only works if you're using the words in the language people understand. Doesn't work by just shouting if it's in a language that people don't understand. But I have found there are certain cultures I do work with a lot of people from Asia, the Middle east, and quite often they're speaking so down. Low energy, low key, low volume, and speaking quickly. It makes it very hard to understand. Simply by speaking a little louder and a little slower, they solve all those problems and people can understand. That's all that really matters. People understand your message and they find it to be a useful message. They get the sense that you actually care about them. You can be a wildly successful communicator. On the other hand, you can have perfect grammar, perfect vocabulary. Everything about how you're dressed can be perfect. If your message isn't interesting, or people really feel you couldn't care less about helping them, you will fail as a communicator. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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