Related Posts
Conversation Starter
Conversation Starter
Mentor
How many hours did you bill today? 😆 🤣
Additional Posts in Desi Consultants
Enthusiast
Conversation Starter
Pro
Rising Star
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Not sure what team you are dealing with but I deal with many people from a team of 30 and they are all amazing and no issues.
I’ll try this. Thanks!
Chief
I too work with offshore resources everyday but communication with respect to grammar and accents was never a problem.
Rising Star
Also you cannot assume that all the offshore folks understand Hindi. It is not our national language.
Accenture, it’s a mix. Mostly south actually - the guy I coordinate with speaks Tamil and Hindi :)
Chief
This is the most ridiculous thing I heard in a while. I am an ABD and have been working with Indian offshore providers since 2003 including Deloitte USI. I don’t speak Hindi and I never had any major communication issues with them albeit we all have different accents and styles.
Maybe that’s part of the problem, I’m always multi tasking during meeting because there is work that needs to be done.
Deloitte - if you are fluent in Hindi, speak in Hindi whenever you can’t understand wtf they are saying in English
Yup that’s what I do, but when clients are on call I can’t do that.
Rising Star
You can just say “excuse me, but I’m going to switch languages for clarity”. The native English speakers will not mind - But this will definitely be a big put down for your offshore colleagues who will take this badly.
Rising Star
Lacking the ability to communicate well in English is a career limiting issue in India, especially if you’re in a client facing role. It will kill their confidence.
Op- What level are you at? You seem pretty naive from your responses on this thread.
I have spent a decade working with Indian professionals in India and not even once, I faced any communication issues. They speak fairly clearly with a little different accent which is not hard to understand at all. All my US teammates - 80% Americans (non-desi/non-ABD), literally compliment our offshore teams for their communication skills because they are good at it despite English not being their native language.
Now I am a little amused that you don’t understand them despite being a desi? Do you not have any friends in India who speak similar accents? Family members? What about it is that you do not understand?
It’s professionally unacceptable at the firm to use regional languages for communication. Only one official language is to be used & you switching it to Hindi could be offensive to some folks.
Could it be that you have some biases in your own head about off shore folks that you truly don’t want to understand at all?
From my knowledge, all these corporate giants, MNCs (indian or non-indian), do not hire anyone who doesn’t speak good English. So your post is a little weird & hard to believe in that sense. Think about it.
I’m pretty junior. I have a lot of family and friends in India but I never talk to them in English always in one of the many Indian languages I speak.
To be fair I have a hard time with other accents as well, just most of my team currently is in India so that’s what I’m seeking advise for. One of my co-workers is French and I have trouble understanding him sometimes too :(
Chief
Do not use any language apart from English. I have had contractors use the fact that an SM spoke to them in Hindi to get them into trouble (can elaborate on this if needed). If I’m not wrong our contracts enforce the use of English (sometimes other languages in Europe if needed). It’s not your responsibility to teach them English. Do what you can to adjust but again don’t provide instructions in Hindi. That gap can be heavily misused in my opinion especially around clients.
How did they get the SM in trouble? I use Hindi for 1 on 1s.
I used to work in USI, and have been in the US for a decade now and have never encountered a language issue working with our offshore team. I would not switch to a local language in a group call unless everyone on the call can understand that language. What you use in your 1:1s is up to you
I feel exactly the opposite. Encourage the offshore to speak and speak in English. It's okay that their English isn't that good, but they cant really grow without being able to communicate in English. With practice they will learn the language better and it's good for them only. It will take some patience.
I get annoyed when people talk in Tamil or Hindi or any regional languages.
Chief
This is so true. Developing others may take patience and it’s very inconvenient but it pays back in the long run
Do you use detailed email/chat formula when speaking on the phone doesn’t work? Most of the times juniors are afraid/hard to express themselves clearly while speaking but email/messenger works better in such circumstances when one gets the option to correct before hitting the send button. Most of the meetings on phone are useless in my experience when everyone just more or less agrees to each other since they haven’t even started working upon so no issues or would like to let the meeting end soon. Due to time difference staying up every time won’t make sense and a detailed email with steps can be a good starting point. Additionally, emails never get lost while as humans we tend to forget things from calls as they go very fast and sometimes taking notes aren’t of much help either.
I’ll try this, thanks for the advice. I think overall I haven’t worked with external offshore teams, so there is a little bit of adjustment factor for me too.
There needs to be one universal language that everyone including the client understands. If that is English, then offshore team needs to improve their communication. They come from different backgrounds hence it will be tough, but I have them do it.
Before anyone attacks, I am from offshore. We do use Hindi in 1-1 or for fun, but all work calls, we try to stick to English to improve everyone’s communication and confidence
Yep. Stick to hindi. Point is to communicate and not speak english.
Ok I guess that resolves the issue then. I speak multiple Indian laungages so I can just do that, thanks!
Chief
I am Tamil, working with a North Indian team. It took a while of careful listening 🤷♂️ It was even more difficult with Ozzies.
OP is projecting his incompetency onto others. Nobody owes it to anyone to know your dialect/language/accent.
People from different regions speak differently, even the angrez have dialects that are incomprehensible to even other native English speakers.
Everyone on my team does. I’ve specified that before. But keep arguing.