Skip the Apology for Your “Bad” English (and Shift the Focus to Your Audience)

By Jennie Parker

I get it. I’ve studied Spanish and Turkish, and whenever I enter a conversation in one of these languages, I feel compelled to say (in the respective language), “I’m sorry, my Spanish (or Turkish) is bad.”  Letting my conversation partner know from the start that my vocabulary is limited, my accent is foreign, buys me empathy and patience, doesn’t it?

I often hear the same refrain from clients who speak English as a second (or third, or fourth...) language: “I’m sorry for my poor English. I hope you can understand.”  Or, “My accent is so bad.”
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​But what I have found is that apologizing for your language skills puts a spotlight on pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary errors. Your communication partners will likely know that English is not your first language, but when you point out your self-consciousness, your partners may start focusing on the delivery of your message and not the content. Perhaps they hadn’t given your accent or English skills a second thought, but once you point it out, they begin paying attention to it. So, skip the apology and take pride in speaking an additional language (btw, only 20% of Americans can converse in two or more languages.) 

Second, apologizing can put listeners in an awkward position, feeling compelled to compliment you on your language skills: “You’re doing a good job with your English. I understand perfectly well.” Putting listeners in this position casts you in an insecure or incompetent light. You are confident in your message, so project confidence in your delivery. Remember, your accent is unique and tells a story about you and your experiences. Take pride in it.

Finally, apologizing keeps your focus on you instead of the needs of your communication partners. I’ve had several clients so focused on their accents that when they speak in English, they lose track of what they are saying. Instead of focusing on how you are speaking, focus on your audience. How can you convey your message clearly and concisely to your audience? How can you help your audience remember your points or lead them to action? (more on this below)

How to Focus on Your Audience (or Listener)

I’ve prepared the following tips for situations in which you can plan and rehearse what you will say to an audience or listener. Perhaps you are presenting at a conference or interview, or giving a lecture…

1. What is the overarching message you want to deliver to your audience? Be sure that it is clear in your mind and that you repeat it throughout your presentation. Art Markman writes in the Harvard Business Review, “By designing your presentations starting with the ways you want to affect your audience, you can do a better job of constructing an experience that maximizes your influence.” As you construct your overarching message, think about what affect you want to have on your audience: Will you call them to action? Teach them a skill? Provide them with information you want them to use or remember?
2. Boil your sub-messages down to 3-5 main points. Because most of your audience will not remember a laundry list of points, it’s best to chunk your information around a small number of main points. Think of these chunks as paragraphs within a document. All of the supporting information relates back to the topic sentence (or main point).
3. Draw connections to the audience. People remember things easier when they are related to other things they know. Providing anecdotes, explicit links to experiences your audience has likely had, or information that they know will aid them in remembering.
4. Summarize your presentation at the end. A common saying is, “Tell them what you’ll say, say it, and then tell them what you’ve said.” That is, provide a brief outline of your main points at the beginning, elaborate on those points in the body of your presentation, and then summarize what you’ve said in the conclusion. At the conclusion, too, you might explicitly call the audience to action or help them to understand why they should care about your message.
5. Sometimes even the most animated and personable clients become wooden when they deliver a presentation. Suddenly, it is as if they are reading a script (sometimes they are!) instead of making eye contact and processing feedback from their audience. This is understandable, as nerves can get to all of us, but try to take a deep breath, look the audience in the face, and elicit feedback if you can. For example, if you are presenting your ideas to a small group, it’s okay to pause and ask if there are questions. Rephrase in another way if anyone is having trouble understanding.

Remember, too, that practicing will help you convey your message clearly and confidently, especially if you are worried about specific sounds or the pronunciation of certain words. Get those tricky sounds out of the way with practice so that you can focus on your audience.  And don’t apologize for your English!