Relatedly, I think an often underappreciated trick is just to say the same thing in a couple different ways, so that listeners can triangulate your meaning. Each sentence on its own may be subject to misinterpretation, but often (though not always) the misinterpretations will be different from each other and so “cancel out”, leaving the intended meaning as the one possible remaining interpretation.
I have it as a pet peeve of mine when people fail to do this. An example I’ve seen a number of times — when two people with different accents / levels of fluency in a language are talking (e.g. an American tourist talking to hotel staff in a foreign country), and one person doesn’t understand something the other said. And then the first person repeats what they said using the exact same phrasing. Sometimes even a third or more times, after the listener still doesn’t understand.
Okay, sure, sometimes when I don’t understand what someone said I do want an exact repetition because I just didn’t hear a word, and I want to know what word I missed. And at those times it’s annoying if instead they launch into a long-winded re-explanation.
But! In a situation where there’s potentially a fluency or understanding-of-accents issue, using the exact same words often doesn’t help. Maybe they don’t know one of the words you’re using. Maybe it’s a phrasing or idiom that’s natural to you but not to them. Maybe they would know the word you said if you said it in their accent, but the way you say it it’s not registering.
All of these problems are solved if you just try saying it a different way. Just try saying the same thing three different ways. Making sure to use different (simple) words for the main ideas each time. Chances are, if they do at least somewhat speak the language you’re using, they’ll pick up on your meaning from at least one of the phrasings!
Or you could just sit there, uncreatively and ineffectively using the same phrasing again and again, as I so often see...
A similar example: when you don’t understand what someone is saying, it can be helpful to say “I don’t understand. Do you mean X or Y?” instead of just saying “I don’t understand”. This way, even if X and Y are completely wrong, they now have a better sense of where you are and can thus adjust their explanations accordingly.
Relatedly, I think an often underappreciated trick is just to say the same thing in a couple different ways, so that listeners can triangulate your meaning. Each sentence on its own may be subject to misinterpretation, but often (though not always) the misinterpretations will be different from each other and so “cancel out”, leaving the intended meaning as the one possible remaining interpretation.
I have it as a pet peeve of mine when people fail to do this. An example I’ve seen a number of times — when two people with different accents / levels of fluency in a language are talking (e.g. an American tourist talking to hotel staff in a foreign country), and one person doesn’t understand something the other said. And then the first person repeats what they said using the exact same phrasing. Sometimes even a third or more times, after the listener still doesn’t understand.
Okay, sure, sometimes when I don’t understand what someone said I do want an exact repetition because I just didn’t hear a word, and I want to know what word I missed. And at those times it’s annoying if instead they launch into a long-winded re-explanation.
But! In a situation where there’s potentially a fluency or understanding-of-accents issue, using the exact same words often doesn’t help. Maybe they don’t know one of the words you’re using. Maybe it’s a phrasing or idiom that’s natural to you but not to them. Maybe they would know the word you said if you said it in their accent, but the way you say it it’s not registering.
All of these problems are solved if you just try saying it a different way. Just try saying the same thing three different ways. Making sure to use different (simple) words for the main ideas each time. Chances are, if they do at least somewhat speak the language you’re using, they’ll pick up on your meaning from at least one of the phrasings!
Or you could just sit there, uncreatively and ineffectively using the same phrasing again and again, as I so often see...
A similar example: when you don’t understand what someone is saying, it can be helpful to say “I don’t understand. Do you mean X or Y?” instead of just saying “I don’t understand”. This way, even if X and Y are completely wrong, they now have a better sense of where you are and can thus adjust their explanations accordingly.
Yeah, for sure — a great technique for avoiding the Double Illusion of Transparency.