Talk the Talk

The English language skills and communication skills required to work in an international field in English are different from the skills required to work in the U.S. as a local member. I was not fully aware of this fact until I came to Charlotte. Even when I talk to my Japanese friends about the difficulties to work in Charlotte as a local employee, most of them do not understand my points. If you are in Japan working for an American company, or if you are in the U.S. working for a Japanese company, being able to speak understandable English is just enough to be evaluated. But if you would like to have a career in the U.S. as a real part of corporate America, you have to have practical communication skills to the extent that your business counterparts feel comfortable and not embarrassed in communicating with you in various different situations. Language is an important part of communication, but I think it is equally important that you have good understanding of American culture, articulate clearly, and talk and behave in an appropriate manner.

My senior colleague told me about the cultural training she took recently. She had a case study. The case was about a new team gathered in the U.S. at an international consulting firm, and there was a Japanese staff member transferred from the branch office in Tokyo. That Japanese person was capable but has accents. She did not get a chance to meet the clients and struggled. The manager in the case had a concern about bringing her to client meetings lest the clients feel bad about being assigned a non- American consultant. My colleague may and may not have used the story as a metaphor to tell me about the problem I should overcome. I was not offended but understood that it is the reality in the U.S. and something which managers have to learn in a training how to deal with.

Another story is about my Japanese friend who has just finished a MBA course in Charlotte and got a new position in a Japanese research firm in New York City. It is a great company and a great job, but he was not perfectly happy because he ended up working for a Japanese company. He has been in the U.S. since he was 18. He went to a university in the U.S. and has been working in the U.S. for more than ten years. He speaks good English and has a Green Card. He has his resume reviewed by American advisors at his MBA school, but he said that it was difficult for him to proceed to an interview process. He also said that even the companies expanding the business overseas still want to hire an American for a client facing position who speaks native American English and shares the same cultural understanding as the clients.