zandax online course logo
zandax website search
zandax phone callback
Info, Blogs, Contact & Login
Courses
Tests

How Do I Avoid Offending People From Other Cultures while Delivering Presentations?

From the ZandaX Presentation Skills Blog

Articles to make you more effective in your presentations

Home  >  ZandaX Blogs  >  Business Blog  >  Presentation Skills Articles  > 
How Do I Avoid Offending People From Other Cultures while Delivering Presentations?

How Do I Avoid Offending People From Other Cultures while Delivering Presentations?

A post from our Presentation Skills blog

Article author: John B
      Written by John B
Much of the public speaking that I did in my 20s was in Africa. I was part of a team that did community building. We would travel to different places across the continent where targets had been identified, whether that was building or painting a school, or teaching people to dig wells.

Depending on the nature of the project and who was feeling fresh, different members of our team would give a talk. We would dig wells with people, but we also wanted to teach them to do it themselves, so there were detailed presentations too.

However, Africa is no different to any other continent, moving around means that you encounter many different cultures and languages, almost all of them different to your own. So every time you gave a presentation, you ran the risk of offending people.

Cultural Differences in Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

One of my colleagues once decided to start a presentation with a joke, to break the ice. Unfortunately, he had not actually thought to ask anybody about it first, and his joke offended everybody in the audience His talk sank like a lead balloon, and it took more than a week of working side by side with people before they started to feel like we were really trying to help.

How to Avoid Offending Your Auidence

My advice in this case: if you do intend to use humour with a foreign audience, run the joke by somebody from that culture first. Explain that it is a joke, see how they respond privately. Better to get feedback from one person than alienate an entire audience.

While you can see from my picture now that I am balding, at university I had grown my hair down to my belt. When I first joined this group of community builders, I had been told that there might be the odd occasion when we would be working with cultures that did not accept men having overlong hair. In that scenario, would I be prepared to cut it? I had answered that I would, and just really hoped that we would not get to a group that required this sacrifice from me. Alas, 6 months in, and I was told a trip involved a group that the previous year there had been problems with a man that had long hair, but shorter than mine.

After a very unhappy two weeks, I had my hair cut. It was a good thing too, as I ended up doing the main presentations for this group. Not only did I successfully avoid offending them, but I made friendships with people that exist to this day, over 20 years later! Now that I know them really well, I do understand what an issue my long hair would have been. I certainly would not have been able to repeatedly go back and do further work with them.

Things You Should Be Aware Of



1. Your verbal message

This can include the use of jokes, but also certain words. If you are going to be speaking in a language that is not your mother tongue, check your pronunciation. I had a Zulu colleague on one team that when speaking English pronounced "important" as "impotent". After confusing his own team, let alone the audience, we eventually asked him to select a synonym so that he did not have to use that particular word.


2. Your body language

Do you use gestures that could offend? Giving somebody the thumbs up does not mean the same thing in every culture.

hand gestures


3. Your appearance and dress, and physical icons

As I leant with my hair, are there things about the way that you look that could cause offence? Do you need to cover your head? Or remove body piercings? Cover a tattoo?

While working through university, I had worked in a pub. I had received shirts with the logos of alcohol on them. At one presentation, I realised too late that my T-shirt had a logo that would cause offence, and had to sweat through a 45 minute presentation with a jumper on to hide the shirt. I had to then keep saying that I was slightly ill, or they would have wondered why I insisted on keeping the extra warm layer on.


4. Your culture

Would you flaunt material success when presenting to a very disadvantaged community? Be sensitive in the use of what props you use. You might lose your audience as they spend more time wondering about the props that you have, or if you use an example that they just cannot relate to.

If you are going to use metaphors, make sure that they are understood by your audience. I once struggled trying to get people to understand an example that I was using about copying something with a fax machine. Many of the audience in the village had not ever seen a fax machine in the 1990s, let alone know what it was for.


5. Your audience

Do you need to split your audience? Do you need to separate the men and women, and present to them separately? If you do, do you need to ensure that you have a presenter that is the same gender as the audience?

audience

If you think about these 5 elements before presenting to an audience from a foreign culture, you will certainly have gone a long way in avoiding offending them. It will get you 99% of the way there. That last 1% is about being vigilant. Always have in mind that you need to be taking care, and you will not make a mistake by taking something for granted.

So, in summary, if you are going to have to present before people from a different culture, make sure you do not offend them. See if by any research possible, or asking your contacts within the community, if there are any things that will offend, and need to be avoided. That way you will not have lost your audience even before you started.

If you would like to do further reading on being aware of cultural non-verbal differences, Andrews University has some excellent tips on non-verbal communication and what errors to avoid.

What do you think? Let us know what you think in the comments below.



Presentation-eBook

Download our Free eBook:
10 Tips for a Perfect Presentation

Back to the Presentation Skills blog

Click the button for more Presentation Skills articles.

The ZandaX Business Skills blog

Click a panel for great articles on business skills

Write For Us

We pride ourselves on our busy, high-quality and helpful blog, and we're always looking for guest contributors to increase the variety and diversity of what we present.

Click to see how you can write for us with an original and well-written guest post.

ZandaX Blog Contents

Want to see them all? Click to view a full list of articles in our blogs.

Online courses to boost your skills
Click a button to see more about each course
Personal Development
Microsoft Software
 
 
Leadership & Management
Sales & Presentations
Service & Support
 
 
ZandaX online training course logo
ZandaX – Change Your Life ... Today
All content © ZandaX 2023
ZandaX LinkedIn logo
ZandaX LinkedIn logo
ZandaX LinkedIn logo
Close menu element
See how you score on a range of skills that are critical to your well-being and performance
Communication Skill test
Communication Skills
How Can You Communicate Better?
Would you like to see what kind of communicator you are? And how you can improve the effectiveness of your communications?
Likeability test
Likeability
How Much Do People Like You?
Do you sometimes wonder just how likeable you are? And wouldn't you like to see how you can (genuinely) become more likeable?


Time Management test
Time Management
How Can You Make More Use Of Your Time?
Are you frustrated by how easily time slips away? Do you get frustrated when things don't get done just because you run out of time?
Assertiveness test
Assertiveness
Are you Passive, Aggressive or Assertive?
Would you like to know where you fall on the behavior spectrum? Does your response to events sometimes surprise you?


Close menu element
Information & Resources
ZandaX information
Information
Read more about us, our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service
See how we want to help you, and how we make everything easy for everyone
Callback request
ZandaX Blogs
Articles to increase your knowledge and understanding in key areas of your life and career.
Read our blogs on Personal Development, Business Skills and Leadership & Management


Time Management test
Log In
Log in to your online dashboard
View your courses, review what you want and download your workbooks and certificates
Assertiveness test
Contact Us
An easy online form to get in touch
With options for More Information, Customer Service and Feedback


Close menu element
Develop Your Skills, Knowledge and Understanding with ZandaX
Click any subject in the listings for more information and a full list of courses

Personal Development
Personal Development training
Your soft skills affect everything you do, at work, at home and with friends ... they are truly life changing!
NEW COURSES
Online training courses
Hot Off the Press...
We're always adding to and upgrading our courses, so here are a few of our latest releases:
For a full listing of courses, please visit our Quick Course Finder to find exactly what you want.
Site Cookies
We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better.

You can change your cookie settings in your browser. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue.

I'm fine with this