Combining cultural humility with cultural intelligence

- The first step in supporting nonnative speakers is to understand their experience. I mean, imagine yourself working in a second, third, or fourth language where, even if you're fluent, you might not understand the cultural references. Maybe you're concerned about your grammar and if you're expressing yourself clearly. Nonnative speakers often feel as though they're at a disadvantage in a company that uses English as the primary language of business, especially when they're on teams where there are few other nonnative speakers. And even if your company is global, and entire teams speak English as a lingua franca, a term that means the entire team is comprised of nonnative speakers using English to communicate at work, there will still be variation in fluency, cultural understanding, and cultural norms between them. Your understanding and openness of these issues are an important element in developing positive…