I was delivering a Great
Demo! Workshop last week in Europe to an international audience and during our
first break, a woman came up to me and asked me to:
- Slow
down a bit and
- Be a
bit more careful with my choice of words.
This was a great reminder –
and humbling, personally. I work hard to slow down my delivery and try to
choose more “internationally”-understood English words and phrases (and to
avoid U.S.-specific colloquialisms), when presenting to non-native English
speakers – and I generally believe I do a good job. However, it was clear
I could do better…!
It is very difficult for
non-English audiences to spend a day or two working in English, as a second
language – it can be confusing, at minimum, and very tiring overall…!
During the last few months, I
was at a number of sales kickoff meetings, where many of the presenters were
from the U.S. (and audiences were very international). The number of
U.S.-specific references, analogies, metaphors, examples and colloquial phrases
was truly staggering…! Here are some examples that I heard (along with
possible non-U.S. interpretations):
- “Hit it
out of the park” – [What are you hitting, and why?]
- “That’s
the minor leagues” – [Is this a music reference or perhaps a follow-on
movie to the Justice League?]
- “The
cat’s out of the bag” – [Why was the cat in the bag? What did he
do?]
- “That
dog don’t hunt” – [Whose dog doesn’t do what? And why?]
- “It was
wicked” – [Wicked – is that evil or good, or a referenced to the musical?]
- “Piece
of cake” – [Ahh, it must be time for dessert or our next coffee break,
yes?]
- “That’s
just putting lipstick on a pig” – [Um, why and what did the pig do to
you?]
- “Break
a leg” – [Sounds painful…]
- “Monday
morning quarterback” – [Do they play American football on Monday
mornings?]
- “The
whole nine yards” – [What happened to the 10th yard? And
how many meters is that?]
- “Go
Dutch” – [Is that like, “Go Amsterdam FC!”?]
- “It
fell through the cracks” – [Are there cracks in our software?]
- “We
threw him under the bus” – [Now THAT’s going to leave a mark…!]
- “Off
kilter” – [I’m totally lost on this one]
- “Out of
whack” – [Too bad, no more whacks in your bag, huh – perhaps the cat has
more whacks in his bag…]
Annnnnd, (I hear you cry),
how does this apply to demos? Directly!
Contemplate the challenges
faced by YOUR customers when they are receiving demos presented using phrases
and language that are U.S.-specific – and delivered at rapid-fire pace.
One of our top priorities in presenting demos is clarity of communication – so
we should take the guidance from my Workshop participant above and
- Slow
down
- Choose
words and word phrases that are as international-English as possible…!
And by the way, “tabling”
something in the U.S. means the opposite in the UK, Australia, and many
other English-speaking countries – but that is an opportunity for another
post…!
