Matt Abrahams

And if something comes up, you get to decide in the moment, do I address it or do I just keep going?

So culture and context loom large in all communication.

We have to think – and when I talk about culture, I'm not just talking about country of origin.

Different organizations have different cultures.

Different departments within organizations have cultures.

Different generations have different cultures.

So we just have to be sensitive to that.

Our messages have to play differently.

So whenever we communicate, we have to think about who we're communicating to and the context and culture in which we're communicating.

We live in a diverse society in a diverse world where we hear lots of viewpoints, lots of people from different places.

Accents loom large.

On my show, Think Fast, Talk Smart, I've interviewed a lot of people who are experts in non-native speaking.

And what they all tell me is the goal of a non-native speaker is not to sound like a native speaker.

It's impossible.

It can't be you're not a native speaker.

Rather, focus on getting your message across.

Take the pressure off of yourself.

So what does that mean?

That means I might make my point, and then what I do is I repeat it with a story, or I give an example, or I tell an analogy.

It's about getting the point across, not about worrying about, am I using exactly the right word and the right syntax?