False Friends- The English and The French
The French project manager has prepared for a presentation to the UK senior management team
PM: "Hello, thank you for assisting the project update meeting."
False Friend #1:
[assister à = to attend] [assist = to help]
Senior Manager [with a quizzical look on their face]: "Hello everyone, well you know we all like to be involved.... and help where we can."
The manager feels that there could be a lot of issues that they are going to have to assist with.
PM: "We planned on providing the demo today, however, we need to report the demonstration, to next Friday".
False Friend #2:
[reporter = to postpone] [report = to provide an update]
Senior Manager: "What- so you are doing the demonstration for us today, then including that in which report next Friday?".
PM [Sighing and speaking more slowly]: "No the demo will not be today, it will be next Friday. Today, we will provide an update".
A Cultural Taboo
Sighing in the UK can be taken as a personal attack, perceived in a way that the person is expressing frustration with the other person there.
Senior Manager (frustrated by the perceived tone of the PM): "Ok, we can take the matter of which report you are talking about and who the intended audience is offline." "Ok, so please provide the update of the progress for the project".
Understanding the Situation
The PM thinks they are not being heard and are having to repeat themselves, whereas the senior manager feels offended.
PM: "Actually, we are working on the demo. It is going well, however there were some issues and we would like to demand support in resolving them."
False Friend #3:
[actuellement = Currently] [actually= I know this is quite unbelievable but we are shockingly doing some work....]
Senior Manager: "Demand?!?!?"
False Friend #4:
[demander = to ask politely] [demand = to order someone to do something / an imperative]
The main issue with these phrases is that the more fluent you are, or the more native your accent sounds, the more people will completely believe the meaning that they heard. When your English is excellent, native speakers stop making allowances for you not being a native speaker. They don't hear a mistranslation, they just hear a manager who sounds aggressive, defensive and lacks clarity.
If you want to provide communication that is polished and impressive, not chaotic and frustrating, contact us. We provide bespoke coaching and consultancy in strategy for communication at the executive level.
Moving Past the Dictionary
I’ve been fascinated by these cultural fault lines since childhood. Growing up, I absorbed these nuances almost by osmosis through films, books and observation. I have also found that when researching a language it is even more important to understand cultural etiquette.
When you operate internationally you cannot rely on literal translations of behaviour.
British: The British leader’s "scar tissue" and pragmatic, results-driven grit looks like unstructured chaos to a continental institutionalist.
Continental European: The Continental European’s "intellectual positioning" and deep structural alignment looks like defensive, bureaucratic stalling to an American or British team.
Scandinavian: The Scandinavian’s egalitarian consensus looks like a lack of leadership to those used to top-down authority.
If your international strategy relies entirely on the fact that everyone in the room scores a high band on an English proficiency test, you are even more exposed than with lower level language speakers.
The Real Risk
High fluency without cultural humility doesn't make you an international leader.
It makes you highly articulate at making critical mistakes.
Our Approach
In our coaching we explicitly call out the cultural nuances when going through simulations to ensure that it's not just language that improves but also maximising successful outcomes.
If you'd like to learn more, send us a message.
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