International Communication: Create a Relaxed Atmosphere

"Now I think possibly one of the most important things about communicating with people from other cultures--and it's hard to say because there's a lot of good tips and a lot of valuable information that I've shared today. But, whatever you do, create a relaxed atmosphere for your communication endeavor. I think it's probably very stressful for Americans to communicate with people from other cultures or people from other cultures to communicate with Americans. We've got the language barriers, we've got the cultural differences. So, if you can create a relaxed atmosphere where the other person can feel like, hey, this is okay. I don't have to worry about this. I can mess up, it's not going to be a big deal. Let that be your responsibility, because in a relaxed environment communication will flourish. And if people are nervous they're going to mess up more. If they're relaxed, they're going to mess up less. And that's what you want. You want to put the person that you're communicating with at ease. So create a relaxed environment and you'll have great communication success."