Can You Speak To Give A Speech To Non-English Audiences?

As a small business owner and consultant in international trade and communication, I get asked occasionally to give speeches to different groups about trends that I see shaping the global economy. There have been a number of cases when the audiences that I speak to consist of people from different cultures and who don’t speak English. Recently, I was spoke to a trade group in California where the majority of attendees where Japanese speakers. Having completed a large number of these speeches, I have learned several things that I would like to share with others. Some of these are new ideas, while others are common sense and worth repeating.

To begin, I find it necessary to remind everyone that when speaking before an audience, you must come across as intelligent, articulate, confident, and likable. If you are speaking to a group of Japanese to English Translation workers, then they came to hear a leader and they expect to see someone who has leadership in knowledge, appearance and accomplishments. But for most business leaders, speaking before an audience is not easy. If you are a good public speaker, you gain instant credibility and well respected among the community of listeners. Additionally, he will be able to influence and manage others much better through the acquisition of the superior speaking skills that he has been able to acquire and practice.

Having described the basic requirements, I will now provide some more pointed recommendations for speaking to foreign audiences. When in front of some audiences, you must really be conscious about how you use humor. Sometimes the best words to use are not words but instead cartoons and jokes that can persuade audiences and keep them interested in your content. Never make the mistake of blindly incorporating humor into an otherwise good speech because it may have accidental consequences. To explain what we mean, let’s consider a speech writer who wants to include a comedy act from an Arabic radio station in a speech to be given to a group of Arabic Translation agencies. At the time of planning the delivery, it seems like it could be extremely useful in conveying an idea. However, we may not consider the unintended results. The audience might gasp and be so hurt or appalled that they storm out and have a negative image that has been branded into their minds about you and your company. Of course, something would have to go terribly wrong for it to reach that point. But always give the audience some additional time to digest and interpret the meaning. Sometimes, it takes a few extra moments. Finally, if the event planners happen to mention that the group of Russian Document Translation professionals that you will be speaking to speaks English then make to follow-up and learn if it is UK English or American English. If you learn that the Russians did indeed learn British English then you better be extra careful in your choice of words to use in your presentation. In many cases, British English words can have completely different means to people who have been taught US English.