Here is a part of our conversation with Jason about miscommunication between native and non-native speakers.
Listen to examples, there are PLENTY in this episode.
Here is some advice to improve the quality of your communication in English:
- check the meaning of ALL the words AGAIN. It doesn't hurt to look up the words that you already know (or you think you know) if you feel stuck or if whatever you're listening to does not make sense to you.
- do not trust one example. Always look for more to identify the pattern or the structure. Always pay attention to the words next to the ones you're trying to learn to use in a sentence. For example, "customer development" is the right word combination, but "make deep customer development" does not really make sense, even though all the words fit grammatically together"
- do not ignore your articles. If you don't use them it just shows a lack of understanding and a lack of depth in the language
- work on improving your pronunciation. Sometimes you can't understand people and they can't understand you simply because you mispronounce some words
- have a good attitude
- ALWAYS check understanding
Examples are in the audio file. Enjoy!