The "What are you thinking about?" advertisement by Berlitz is a popular video you can easily find on the Internet. Berlitz clearly shows the need for non-native English speakers to improve their listening comprehension. When I saw the video, I thought it was funny."Hello, can you hear us? We are sinking!", the poor man says. "What are you thinking about?", the German coastguard replies.
This is a case of ineffective communication. Of course, it is amusing. We can imagine the final comic result: The boat sank and people died. Berlitz communicated the necessity to "Improve your English". My questions are...is it the German's responsibility to improve his understanding of English? Or the native English speaker's responsibility to communicate an important message clearly and be sure the German understands?
The fact is that I see ineffective communication almost every day. Fortunately, death is not (often) the result of misunderstanding, but unproductive communication is the result of wasted time and effort. In bad cases, people lose money.
You are responsible for the language you use. You are also responsible for being sure that people understand you. In reality, the German coastguard is not responsible for his misunderstanding. The man who said, "We are sinking!", is the ineffective communicator. Because he repeated the same sentence 4 times and did not use different words to clarify his message, he sank!
For example, after he repeated "we are sinking" 2 times, he could have said, "The boat is going in the water" and "Water is entering the boat and we are in danger!"
You may ask, "Well, how could the poor man know that the German did not understand?" He did not know. He did not have time. Luckily, in real life, you have time. If you have a doubt, or just to be sure that non-native English speakers comprehend, you can ask: "Was I comprehensible?" or "Is that clear?"
That simple question could save time and money...maybe even lives!
