My experience with Chinese and Farsi speaking People let me emphasize what Ivan just said. But even more, there are still greater differences, as i can see, as i speak Chinese as well. The Approach to a subject, what you say or Chinese do not say, as they think this idea is/was already included in what the told... and so on. This makes it more difficult. When i compare the English Version - which i couldn´t grasp - with the Chinese original - which i asked for then, i can understand the difference and see the misunderstandings, leading to wrong emotions and wrong discussions.

Complaints on the lack of English communication skills among Asian engineers led to educational institutions design ESP courses along with Engineering curriculum which are considered necessary for the professional workplace.

Thanks Krishnan,

Do these courses include cross cultural communication skills ?

In India it is YES. Geographically spread and big country with diverse population of language, culture, religion etc.,

Example - .....Seva Rathna Vallal RCK College Of Engineering offers careful mentoring in terms of personality development and career advancement through a dedicated Competency Development Cell [CDC], in-house value-added certification programs, frequent guest lectures from industry professionals, mock interviews and group discussions, spoken English classes, coaching in business communication skills and soft skills development training programs. ....

http://www.sift.edu.in/Probody.aspx

Thanks krishnan , what specific problems do  you think Indian graduate face when they work in a foreign country or when they are in interaction with foreigners in workplace ?

Dear George , you mentioned very prevalent and serious issue of pronunciation problems,  could I  know more about the situation in Canada for graduate students working with with foreigners  ?  you think French / English preferences and dominance in certain areas could also create cross cultural misunderstanding ? 

Usually idioms and phrasal verbs are the greatest hardships to non-native speakers of English in a working environment. Of course, I do not include here the problems arising from different perception of body language, gestures and other form of non-verbal communication.

My experience with Chinese and Farsi speaking People let me emphasize what Ivan just said. But even more, there are still greater differences, as i can see, as i speak Chinese as well. The Approach to a subject, what you say or Chinese do not say, as they think this idea is/was already included in what the told... and so on. This makes it more difficult. When i compare the English Version - which i couldn´t grasp - with the Chinese original - which i asked for then, i can understand the difference and see the misunderstandings, leading to wrong emotions and wrong discussions.

THERE IS LACK OF COMFORT to both speaker and listeners, BECAUSE SPEAKING IN THE MOTHER TONGUE IS THE COMFORT ZONE FOR MANY.  Those of us who learn English from a young age have a great advantage, and I am thankful for this.

Very briefly, the problems focus on the lack of good VOCABULARY TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES TO THEIR OWN SATISFACTION, THE SYNTAX IN ENGLISH THAT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE MOTHER TONGUE, AND ERRORS IN GRAMMAR that a non-native speaker isn't aware. 

In DIRECT TRANSLATION FROM THE MOTHER TONGUE TO ENGLISH, AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MEANING may be conveyed that may be very humorous, but then everyone else gets a good laugh.

Thanks  Miranda ,for discussing such a  vital issue

 there is no one to one correspondence between the semantic syntactic and pragmatic aspects of languages  the consequence of which is misinterpretation, miscommunication and cross cultural misunderstanding.  

A major barrier to business productivity that involves language is the use of idioms. In everyday speech it is typical for an individual to substitute particular phrases or words that mean something other than their literal meaning. Businesses are notorious, furthermore, for using sports metaphors like “home run effort” or “Hail Mary gambit” or “slam dunk success” in order to describe their operations, strategies, and day-to-day operations. Idioms are some of the most difficult parts of speech for a non-native speaker to comprehend. Any business needs to ensure that their company’s printed materials, like training manuals and circulations, are idiom-free so that a literal translation makes sense.

http://www.careerealism.com/language-barriers-workplace/

https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/media/universityoflincoln/holbeach/Effective,Communication,with,a,Multi-Language,Workforce,Toolkit,-,Final,,,,.pdf

certainly subhash,  walking the tightropes of idiomatic expressions , interlocutors experience a whole gamut of linguistic and cultural misunderstandings since the non-core figurative secondary  aspects of words and expressions are intended.   

certainly subhash,  walking the tightropes of idiomatic expressions , interlocutors experience a whole gamut of linguistic and cultural misunderstandings since the non-core figurative secondary  aspects of words and expressions are intended.   

certainly subhash,  walking the tightropes of idiomatic expressions , interlocutors experience a whole gamut of linguistic and cultural misunderstandings since the non-core figurative secondary  aspects of words and expressions are intended.   

I think a linguistic hegemony and a cultural gap in understanding become serious issues.

Regards 

As you know most of the products on the market have a description of several common languages as English, Spanish, French, China, Arabic, Russian. From this point of view, most customers do not experience any problems in understanding. However, the vast number of papers submitted in English.  In my opinion, it is not a big problem to understand any paper in English (or in any other language) by using Google Translator https://translate.google.com/ .  If you motivated then you will always be able to understand any text in any language with the help of this Translator. To as me, for me is much more important is the sense of the text than the language in which to write the text. If I would be interested to understand any text in any language I can always understand the text using several sequential steps. Thus, in my view, UNDERSTANDING = GOOGLE TRANSLATOR + MOTIVATION + PATIENCE, and everything will be OK.

Sure enough israr khan , as you pointed out linguistic hegemony or linguistic imperialism plays and undeniable role .

dear gennady , 

thanks for offering  an effective and creative recommendation , however, 

do you reckon your approach could work when reading  a  book  like '' plato at googleplex'' or any book on philosophy ? how about literary texts which are fraught with  culturally oriented idiomatic expressions ? 

Dear Rahimi Ali,

In my opinion, any "culturally oriented idiomatic expressions" can be understood correctly if we will follow several consecutive steps. We just need to ask a search on Google for a given phrase and see the answers. Then we need look at the paragraphs in the context of which this phrase was used. Analyzing the meaning of these paragraphs, we can calculate with a high probability the meaning of this phrase. The more you will analyze paragraphs, the greater will be the understanding of the meaning of the phrase. I use this approach sometimes, and it works like a good idea.

Hello Gennady. 

thanks for the information on the procedures you adopt  ,