Top reads to improve your communication

By Annie Waite, North American Editor of the Internal Comms Hub, Melcrum

Employee communication specialist, Lee Smith, has put together a great must-read list of books for communicators via Amazon listmania, featuring books by a lot of the well-known communication 'suspects'.  

In addition to Lee's very thorough list, I've a couple of suggestions, concerning reading matter that might help you break down/understand some cultural barriers or differences between North America and the UK.

First, as a gift before heading over to our Chicago office, our CEO Victoria Mellor gave me a great book called Divided by a Common Language: A guide to British and American English by Christopher Davies. It's been an eye-opener and a distinct advantage when trying to avoid inadvertently offending any US citizens and our customers with inappropriate Brit jargon and so on.

Of course, I've had a few stumbling points: seemingly I was the only person left on Earth who hadn't yet soaked up that Arkansas is actually pronounced 'Ark-en-saw', for example. And as Christopher Davies mentions himself "Brits coming over on 'holiday' still use the term 'bathing costume', much to the amusement of Americans within earshot." Guilty. My puzzled colleague thought I was talking about heading out to do amateur dramatics in the bathroom - sorry - "washroom" - when I mentioned I'd bought a new bathing costume.

I've also started reading Made in America by Bill Bryson, which tracks and analyses the history of the English language in America. So far, it's pretty much persuaded me that a lot of (barring Arkansas!) American pronunciation and description of objects etc makes far more sense than some of our UK versions of certain things. E.g., 'Pavement' versus the more straightforward 'sidewalk' – no contest!

So, I wondered if blog readers can recommend any further tomes of knowledge in the communication field that might have passed us all by, or perhaps not seemed immediately relevant to the comms profession but can actually be quite useful?

If so, let us know here and add a review to the Communicators' Network reviews section so that other comms practitioners can feed back about it.

Comments

[Sona Hathi]

Not specifically on communication Annie, but one book on my Facebook "want to read" list is Watching the English - The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour by Kate Fox. One reviewer on Amazon said:

"the single most important concept to be absorbed from WATCHING THE ENGLISH is that of "negative politeness", which explains the notorious English reserve, and:

(Quote from book)'... which is concerned with other people's need not to be intruded or imposed upon (as opposed to 'positive politeness', which is concerned with their need for inclusion and social approval). We judge others by ourselves, and assume that everyone shares our obsessive need for privacy - so we mind our own business and politely ignore them.'

After all, one mustn't 'make a fuss'."

Fascinating stuff...! And of course Melcrum's report "How to communicate with global and hard-to-reach audiences", has some equally fascinating research into cultural ettiquette in the Far East and the Indian Sub-Continent.

[Melissa Dark]

Hi Annie,

Can you please tell me - what do they call a 'bathing costume' in the US? In Australia it actually depends on which state you're in - in Victoria it's 'bathers' in NSW it's 'swimmers'. You can also call them 'togs' or, in the case of men's Speedos, 'budgie smugglers'. (Google it if you've never heard that one, it'll give you a laugh...)

Thanks for the book suggestions - I'll look out for them!

[Annie Waite]

Swimsuits (for girls) and swimming trunks (for boys) apparently!

[Denise Baron]

I first came upon the term "cozzie" when I lived in Australia, briefly in the mid-'80s. When I inquired as to the meaning and was told "swimming costume," it was all I could do to suppress my utter amusement. That's because the word costume for us Yanks is usually associated with Halloween. So it conjured up surreal visions of people wearing masks and doing the breast-stroke in the South Pacific surf. So for all you non-Yanks out there, here's the accepted terminology. For women, it's bathing suit, regardless of the style--maillot, bikini, etc. Swimwear and swimsuits are also used, but usually by magazines -- e.g., Sports Illustrated's "Swimsuit" Issue -- or by department stores, as in "swimsuit sale." Still, you can use swimsuit without fear of embarrassment or being misunderstood. Guys will call theirs swim trunks, or simply trunks. Some Americans have yet to get used to seeing men in speedos, except for those who are Summer Olympics contenders. So if you tend to sport that style, be prepared to be stared at. And try to refrain from the term "swimmers." To us, swimmers are people who, well, swim.