Months later, senior management investigated why the project had flopped, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. “It all traced back to this one word,” says Chia Suan Chong, a UK-based communications skills and intercultural trainer, who didn’t reveal the tricky word because it is highly industry-specific and possibly identifiable. “Things spiralled out of control because both parties were thinking the opposite.”
几个月后,高管调查为什么该项目花费了数十万美元还会失败。英国沟通技巧和跨文化培训师蔡孙重(音)说道:“这一切的起因只是一个字。”他没有说明那个麻烦的字到底是什么,因为它具有很强的行业特征,很可能会被弄混。“事情失去了控制,因为双方的意思刚好相反。”
When such misunderstandings happen, it’s usually the native speakers who are to blame. Ironically, they are worse at delivering their message than people who speak English as a second or third language, according to Chong.
当发生这种误解时,一般来说应该母语者背锅。但是讽刺的是,蔡孙重指出相比于英语是第二或第三语言的人来说,英语母语者传递信息的能力更差。