The Importance of Communication Skills for Engineers

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“While all engineers should have good communication skills, global engineers

face additional challenges, making effective communication an imperative.”

Debra Kraft, Careers Content Writer, Demand Media (2016)

 

Due to language barriers, global engineers are confronted with an additional challenge of communicating effectively across different cultures. This problem is harder than it seems due to the fact that languages are usually intertwined with culture. For the global engineer to communicate effectively, he has to go the extra mile to learn the language's unique sentence structures, grammar rules and even cultural slangs that are commonly used in its region.

A simple example would be the difference in the way english is spoken in Singapore as compared to the original english language. Singaporeans' usage of "lah" and "lorh" have often confused other english speaking nationalities.

This problem would be further compounded when the global engineer is required to communicate in a language foreign to him.


(Revised 11 September 2020)

Comments

  1. dowantellyou9 September 2020 at 07:41

    Good point. It encourages me to do more reading so can improve my English.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brad Blackstone9 September 2020 at 09:27

    Yes, word choice is important. But what makes being an engineer in a global/multicultural context even more challenging?

    As with word choice, understanding effective nonverbals is important, as is effective listening, effective intercultural communication, and effective interpersonal communication. For the global engineer it's all important.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clement Ten11 September 2020 at 01:59

      Appreciate the feedback professor! I will reassess my blog post with these points in mind!
      Thank you!

      Delete

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