Globally Speaking

There's a good reason why non-native speakers find English hard to understand — not only American English but anybody's English. The specific sounds of letters in English are different from those in other languages that use the Latin alphabet (the one we use). For example, the long "a" in our word place sounds like "ah" in the French word place.

The normal enunciation and pronunciation used by Americans put up additional hurdles that frequently stand in the way of our being understood. When we speak within our circle of familiarity — our family, friends, and co-workers — we tend to speak rapidly and casually, taking shortcuts that slur or omit some consonants and vowels: Omina drive t'duh mall roun' a kawduh aftuh faw. Y'wanna come?

In order to communicate globally, we have to step outside our usual slang- and jargon-filled style of speaking. We need to pay attention to the way we use our own language. We should try to develop a kind of internal observer who monitors how we convert our thoughts into words. If this internal monitor does its job, it will tell us when we need to modify our speech so we don't automatically repeat patterns that are familiar to us but unfamiliar to our listeners.