Multilingualism: a key skill enabling successful international communication

MULTILINGUALISM A key skill enabling successful

international communication

June 8, 2016

Communication Skills Track Sponsor

@claudia_v_

@mnordNL

#MULTILINGUALISM

MULTILINGUALISM AT #IABC16


YOUR MULTILINGUAL HOSTS FOR TODAY

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Michael Nord Principal The Fifth Business THE NETHERLANDS

Claudia Vaccarone Head of Market Research & CX Eutelsat SA FRANCE


AGENDA

1. Introduction: the (brief) story of our lives

2. Some facts about multilingualism

3. Multilingualism at work: business cases

4. Five pieces of advise when managing multilingual projects

5. Q&A

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CLAUDIA VACCARONE

MONFERRATO (Northern Italy)


South Orange, NJ (USA)

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GOING WEST…

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MULTILINGUALISM AT #IABC16 10


BACK “HOME” IN ROME

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THE CITY OF LIGHTS

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• 1 000 collaborators from 37 nationalities

• HQ in France, offices in 19 countries

• Clients from 80 countries

• 6000 TV channels over 40 satellites

• Head of Market Research and Customer Experience

• Work actively in 3 languages (Italian, French, English)

MY JOB

MARKET RESEARCH

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

• Leading CX implementation

• Digital Transformation

• Alignment

• Personalization

• Linguistic and cultural adaptation

• Across markets

• Across business units



TODAY

• 4 LANGUAGES AND ½

• 3 COUNTRIES, 6 CITIES

• MOVED 13 times

• 1 HUSBAND

• 2 QUADRILINGUAL KIDS

Italy USA France


MICHAEL NORD


From Denmark to Europe

• Grew up with multilingual parents who traveled a lot • Mother worked in Paris and Greenland (before I was born)

• Father built hotel in Italy for employees of large company

• Went to school with focus on languages • (English, German, French, Latin)

• Self-taught Swedish from watching Pippi Longstocking on Swedish TV

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Facts about Denmark

• One of Europes oldest and smallest kingdoms (oldest national flag)

• Faroe Islands and Greenland part of the kingdom

• +5.5M people speak Danish

• Denmark was once a major power in Europe

• Today high standard of living, Danish design and food known all over the world

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My work life

• First 'job' as Airforce Private (technical English)

• First 'real job' as technical marketing assistant for EMENA

• Agency experiences (Pan-Nordic and global)

• Worked in local, regional and international organizations (plus sat on numerous boards and committees)

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My career: from DK to the world

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Working with multilinguals across the world

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MY JOB

• Communicator, facilitator, trainer, strategic advisor

• Mostly work in English and Dutch, sometimes in Danish

• Focus on internal communications for large international clients, project management of global projects and teams, advising on alignment of internal and external strategy

• Use language and cultural awareness as ice-breaker or door opener

• Biggest challenge: working with dialects!!!! • Biggest asset: assimilate

• @fifthbusiness

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MY LIFE

• Living in Amsterdam

• International context: Danish, Dutch, English, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian, and American friends

• Married to an Italian, but speak Dutch at home (I love my Italian mother-in-law's cooking)

Fun facts about Amsterdam: • Founded in 1275 • 825,000 inhabitants • Home to a large number of

multinational companies • People from 170 countries


TODAY

• 5 LANGUAGES (& 1 ON ITS WAY…)

• 3 COUNTRIES (plus the ocean), 3 CITIES

• 1 HUSBAND

• Fun Fact:

wear different color socks every day!

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AGENDA





5. Q&A

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7 000+ LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN THE WORLD

• Canada • Malaysia • Singapore • India • Philippines • Belgium • Luxemburg • Switzerland • Spain

? 2 or more

official languages



LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN THE USA


200K French-speaking population in Louisiana today!

MERCI! CONTINUEZ!


IC Professionals and language

• VMA Group Europe -2016 survey of Internal Communications professionals:

9.4% speaks 1 language

49% master 2 languages

41.7% master 3+ languages

9 out of 10 IC professionals in Europe

speak more than 2 languages

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WHEN DO WE LEARN HOW TO SPEAK?

HOW DO WE LEARN LANGUAGES?


HOW DO WE LEARN LANGUAGES?

1st WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

0-6 months

Vs. LEARNING AS AN ADULT

• Different brain repository

• Self-consciousness

• Muscles formed, causing accents

Sources: Raising Multilingual Children by T. Takuma-Espinoza


10 key factors in multilingualism success

1. Timing: window of opportunites 2. Aptitude 3. Motivation 4. Strategy 5. Consistency 6. Opportunity & support, environmental exposure 7. Relationship between languages 8. Rank with siblings 9. Gender 10. Left/right handed 11. …???

Sources: Raising Multilingual Children by T. Takuma-Espinoza MULTILINGUALISM AT #IABC16

DIFFERENT LANGUAGES DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES

Illu

stra

tio

n: e

maz

e.c

om



AGENDA





5. Q&A

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BUILDING A MULTILINGUAL TEAM

• Asked to lead a multinational team as Project Manager for a SharePoint migration project in large energy company

• 2 British, 2 Dutch, 1 Caribbean • English as common language • Building rapport with team, using their languages • Ended up with strong cohesive team, resilient to

take on the tasks and issues ahead

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MULTILINGUALISM AT #IABC16 39

FROM FINLAND TO POLAND

• SAP migration project

• Communications Manager

• 11 European countries (12 languages)

• Irish cement company

• South African/Portuguese Director

• From Finland to Poland

MULTICULTURAL ADVERTISING

• Global Works: boutique Agency in NY

• Clients: Nike, ALL STATE, AT&T, J.C. Penney, Citibank

• Cultural adaptation for ethnic domestic markets

CONTENT LOCALIZATION for international markets

• Eutelsat TV Observatory - annual research study

• 51 Markets in Europe and MENA

• Presentations in: EUROPE, MENA, USA

• Deployment offline and online in 3 languages

• Linguistic skills support quality check and strong ties with local teams, clients and press


LARGE EVENTS ABROAD SPONSORSHIP


AGENDA





5. Q&A

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5 PIECES OF ADVICE

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1. BE FLUENT: cultivate fluency

2. Show cultural sensitivity (it is not just ‘google-translate’!)


It does not always sound like it should…

SCHIFO

SKY PHONE

What they meant: What it sounded like:


DISGUST


5 PIECES OF ADVICE

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2. Cultural sensitivity (don’t just google-translate!)

3. Beware of stereotypes, colloquialism & humor nuances

STEREOTYPES

We set expectations based on experience and culture


COLLOQUIALISM

• The full 9 yards

• Going the extra mile

• Between the devil and the deep blue sea

• Raining cats and dogs

• Hungry as a wolf

• Pushing the envelope


5 PIECES OF ADVICE

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2. Show cultural sensitivity (don’t just google-translate!)

3. Beware of stereotypes, bias & humor nuances

4. Beware of acronyms!


5 PIECES OF ADVICE

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2. Show cultural sensitivity (don’t just google-translate!)

3. Beware of stereotypes, bias & humor nuances

4. Beware of acronyms!

5. Reach out to experts & always test with natives

When creative neologisms go wrong…

Incubator

inculator

+ accelerator =




Q&A



THANK YOU! DANKU! GRAZIE!

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Michael Nord Principal The Fifth Business THE NETHERLANDS [email protected] @mnordnl

Claudia Vaccarone Head of Market Research & CX Eutelsat SA FRANCE [email protected] @claudia_v_

This session was sponsored by
