For most of my adult life, I had worked in a technical field. And I was fortunate to team with men and women from all parts of the world. In such an environment, the art of communicating well - whether work, home, play - is a good thing.
And communicating in English - especially those who learned English as a Second Language (ESL) - that encompasses many things ...
The grammar thing ...
For one of my jobs, I had tested software. Much of that entailed reading reports, most written by software engineers, who had documented problems and explained their resolutions in the current software releases. We were to design the tests and execute them to verify the fixes to the satisfaction of the Quality Assurance team.
That was how it was supposed to work. In reality, before we could design the test, I had to get these problem reports, written in English, translated into English.
I considered myself an intelligent person (born in the USA), but reading these reports - it might as well have been written in Mongolian. Frankly, many times, I did not know what they were babbling about. And though they would never admit it, engineers (even native speakers of the language) often don't know how to write ... at least write very well.
Then this equation hit me ...
poor English skills = loss of productivity = lost profits
(But that is fodder for another story.)
For the non-native speakers, we had cut them some slack. And the foreign nationals and immigrants I have known are remarkable people. They had a mastery of more than one language, which many of us natives (myself included) don't have. And English is considered among the top 10 hardest languages to learn - Top 10 Languages that are Hardest and Most Difficult to Learn | OMG Top Tens List
But ESL speakers faced more issues other than mastery of English grammar, such as ...
The cultural thing ...
I recall one of my co-workers, a very intelligent woman, who immigrated from Vietnam. She confessed that when us natives were bantering about - in particular about things common in American culture (old movies, vintage TV shows, iconic characters), she did not know what we were talking about and felt left out. I was glad she spoke up and we tried to explain what we were talking about so she would feel included.
And even if those ESL speakers who have a proper grasp of English grammar and the vocabulary, there is ...
The idiom thing ...
American idioms can be daunting for non-native speakers.
One example was while I was working with an engineer from Eastern Europe. We were communicating with remote personnel via a radio net to coordinate a test. The man's voice on the speaker said though the crackling static -
"You are breaking up."
My co-worker looked at me, most astonished. She asked,
"What does he mean 'we are breaking up?'"
Certainly, Scotty was not beaming us up to the Enterprise (another cultural reference).
Grammar, Literature, Idioms.
This inspired me to start of another series - English, Literature, and Musings ... ELM for short.
First up,
The English Language Thing ...
Below is a summary of the history of the English language in ten short lessons, in ten minutes:---------------------------------------------
Please check of the rest of the post, with links, embedded video at: http://smithsk.blogspot.com/2013/07/elm-part-1-english-literature-and.html
Having worked with many people from foreign lands, I agree with everything you said. Engineers simply can't write. Their minds are on mathematical concepts and physical construction, not how to communicate it. My partner is Vietnamese. We've been together 20 years and counting. This morning she was talking about the “Quinn” and I had to remind her that it was pronounced, “Queen.” She always thanks me when I correct her writing or speaking.
As a professor, I often read 120 assignments a week and prided myself in being able to read some of the worst handwriting on the planet. Universally, I found that college students wrote very poorly. I've also found that many here on AD have very poor English and writing skills. I try to humor them.
Continue to enlighten us…
Ron