Expat Life: Communication

Over the last few years, I have become an avid Google Translate user. So much so that I am proud to admit that the app is prominently positioned on my iPhone home screen.  It is useful for French-English translations to navigate my daily life. It also comes in handy for traveling to other countries where I don’t know the language.  And most importantly, it allows me to communicate with colleagues and our customers, including the ability to translate customer’s contracts that pass through my team.

Technology plays an important role in staying connected across languages and time zones. I am lucky to be an expat during a time where iPhones are ubiquitous and contain multiple apps that allow me to remain in touch with colleagues, family, and friends regardless of where I am in the world. But technology can only go far: you still need to be proactive to make the connections; there are times where translation apps don’t understand the conversation context; and sometimes you cannot replace a face to face discussion.

Learning a Language

I was fortunate to learn French during my middle and high school days since it was the native language of both my grandmother and father, who were both born in Brussels. But after not using the language for 15 years it was tough to recall anything besides the basics. Once moving to Brussels, I studied French for a year in the evenings after work. In addition to learning French, the classes were great for meeting other expats and learn more about European cultures beyond Belgium. Many of our lessons would involve conversations in French about our home countries, which was a fascinating way to learn the French language as well as European culture. 

After a year of practice, I can hold a conversation with a native speaker and understand shop owners, commune (town hall) employees, and those that run our creche (daycare).  My biggest challenge is my accent and how I pronounce certain words or phrases. The most frustrating situation is to know the word/phrase that you need to use given the situation, but the other person has no clue what you are saying. Not because you are saying the wrong thing, but I am saying it the wrong way.

Within Belgium, about 60% of Belgians speak Flemish and 40% speak French (German is 0.4%), which means that most Belgians speak 2-3 languages from an early age. The country is divided geographically based on these language and cultural differences, with Brussels being a bilingual area (1). In Brussels, road signs and other printed materials are in Flemish and French – not exactly efficient but part of the culture of Belgium. 

I’m still trying to improve my French but the challenge is that many speak English in Brussels. Given the large population of expats in addition to the internal French/Flemish language divide, English is a common default language for conversations. This is especially true once someone learns that French isn’t your mother tongue and they would prefer to practice their English with a native speaker. Sometimes my conversations are split – I speak French and the other person speaks English, which means both of us get some practice.

Technology Enablers

With a lot of travel to countries with different languages Google Translate and Reverso have become go-to applications on my iPhone. Translation apps are not just for personal use but also in the business context. I manage a team responsible for contracts in English, German, Dutch, and a few in French. That means if I want to understand the document, Google Translate becomes a close friend. Fortunately, the functionality is very easy to translate an entire document. Even Microsoft Outlook has a button that can easily translate an email chain within seconds. If you don’t know about the plug-in, I would highly recommend downloading it and adding to your Outlook Ribbon:

Between Zoom for voice and video conference calls, Slack for instant messaging, and Outlook for emails there are plenty of options to stay connected. Plus, everything can be used through my iPhone, regardless of where I am in the world, which makes the logistics relatively easy to stay connected. Fortunately, we live in a time where this is possible – video chat is such an amazing tool that makes the long distance seem to shrink, especially to stay connected with friends and family who only get to see our daughter through video chat except for a few times a year.

On the Outside

In general, when living in a country with a different language, you must be comfortable not really understanding what is going on all the time. It can be as simple as taking the metro when someone asks you a question, but you have no clue what they said.  Or in the business context, you are in a business meetings when everyone else is speaking German and revert to English only to include you in the conversation. You never really want to feel like you are an outsider, so you go along with it. But in the end, it is a gentle reminder that you are indeed on the outside.

The funny part of language is not everything translates well. There are English idioms that don’t exactly translate their meaning and some explanation is needed when I use one.  I once used the phrase, “Don’t worry, it is in your wheelhouse!” only to be met with a blank stare. Not realizing what I said, my colleague didn’t quite grasp the meaning of the phrase, even though she has a better grasp of English grammar than I do. But without English as her first language, it took some explaining that the wheelhouse is referring to where the captain steers a ship and that I am saying she has control of the situation. Only then were we able to continue our discussion. Here is a fairly comprehensive list I found that I send to coworkers looking for an explanation: https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-idioms/. I now can spot the telltale blank stare from a coworker when I used one and I didn’t even realize it.

Staying Connected

Beyond language, there are other aspects that make communication difficult when being an expat in an organization spread across 8 offices around the US and Europe.  Being based in Europe means staying connected with coworkers who are based in the US becomes challenging. To combat this, I have setup lots of ongoing remote 1:1s to stay up to date with updates, office politics, and new projects.  Although there is plenty of technology to help stay connected, nothing beats face to face interaction. That is why we rely on a mixture of remote and in-person events to remain connected. For example, I visit our Colorado offices 1-2 times per year and most of time is spent in 1:1s and team meetings. These are highly valuable discussions as it allows me to remain close to the business and continue to develop my relationships with colleagues.

One tradition I brought to Europe from our North American business is an annual sales meeting. My first year in Europe I organized the event to bring together all of our Sales Reps/Managers plus all those that support them. It was a big success because it facilitated networking across our sales regions as well as a conduit to deliver training content on our company, internal processes, and products. It has become more and more important each year as our business continues to evolve and we just had our third annual meeting in London, England.

Fortunately I am an expat in a time where technology allows for relatively easy communication across languages and time zones. Whether it is the app for translations or the app for video chat, technology provides the foundation to be an expat who can remain connected with colleagues, family, and friends.

For those who want to know more about my experience as an expat, I will post a more topics in coming weeks so stay tuned! Feel free to comment with topics you would like me to cover.

(1) “Languages of Belgium.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Mar. 2019, https://www.linkedin.com/redir/general-malware-page?url=en%2ewikipedia%2eorg%2Fwiki%2FLanguages_of_Belgium%2e