Speak Their Language: What a Translator App Taught Me About Connection

Our daughter-in-law, Miho, is 1st generation Japanese. We had one of those lightbulb moments back in February to have her parents come to our house/Colorado for their recent US visit. It was incredible. In 10 days we gave them a true ‘western’ experience including fishing, gun range shooting, visiting Rocky Mountain National Park for 3 days (seeing elk, deer, other critters), and so many more experiences! We connected over amazing home-cooked Japanese food by Miho’s mom, played games, took tons of pictures and of course mostly laughed together watching our grandson.

One of the most fun experiences though was our Google Translator - we speak very little Japanese and vice versa. The Google Translator app really is amazing as you can type in your language and it will translate into the other person’s language, written or spoken. It reminded me of how critical communication is and how much we connect through communication! It’s the connection to each other that means the most. Attempting to speak each other's language (when we didn’t have Miho around to translate) reminded me of a few things for life and business!

Speak Their Language

When we attempted to speak Japanese, her parents were so delighted. I’m absolutely sure we were terrible at Japanese! The pronunciation, intonation, emphasis on what part of the word, etc. was definitely a brain bender. But here’s what was the most interesting - we helped each other when the other person just did their best to speak in the other person’s language. We resaid words, we helped each other with the cadence and way to say each word, and we kept asking how to say the words the best. We were patient with each other.

There are many factors that influence connection and understanding in communication. Our differences as men, women, generations, parents to kids, cultures (really, an endless list) can all make communication easy or tricky.

What about our business clients and leadership teams? Are we speaking in the other person’s language so they can best understand and hear what we’re trying to communicate? I’m not sure I will ever speak ‘GenZ’ well. However, I do know when I’m communicating with others and change my language to do my best to talk/understand ‘in their world’ it makes a difference to who I’m communicating with! Connection becomes easier.

Slow Down, Choose Words Carefully

We had to really slow down in what we said and choose the most easily translated sentences. If you think about it, we all talk really fast in our native languages, which becomes super apparent when you’re trying to talk in a different language! Although Google could translate entire paragraphs, we ended up shortening our communication to simple sentences. In fact, it became the most important words we wanted to communicate that we translated to each other.

When we talk with our clients and teams, do we slow down to make sure our message is heard and understood the way we mean to communicate it? 1st, is our message clear to the listener? 2nd, do we cut out the ‘fluff’ of dialogues and keep our ideas simple, whittling down to the most important words? 3rd, do we check in with the hearer to make sure the communication is clear? Slowing down helps us to connect deeper and with more meaning.

Focus on the Fun!

I can't begin to tell you how much we laughed throughout those 10 days of communicating. We laughed at our attempts to speak the other language. We laughed at Google when the AI translator did NOT translate correctly. We cheered when we ‘got it right’ and actually understood each other. You should have seen us playing board games!

Do you create an atmosphere of fun with your clients and team while communicating with them? Multiple studies have shown that a supportive, positive atmosphere can encourage openness and understanding, while a poor, tense, uncomfortable communication climate actually creates barriers. In those climates, connection shuts down.

I was reminded of how much communication and connection matter these past 10 days and challenged (in all the good ways) to take my communication up a notch in all my relationships.

For the future, we’re not only excited to visit Japan and our ‘Japanese family’ soon, but to also take a day weekly to only speak Japanese so our grandson will become fluent in both languages. We plan to laugh much along the way!

Traci Evans