 All right let's talk about verbal communication in New Zealand and can we improve it? So there's a lot to say on this particular one because it's quite big. You have the slang terms, you have the accent, you have cultural norms, different cultures here, you know communicate differently, certain jargon is appropriate and so it really can be quite confusing when you come here and you're like okay is this like okay and like and even just how you're taught to communicate doesn't necessarily come across very well either as you know Americans are loud and aggressive is kind of the typical stereotype and it's okay it's true. And so yeah so let's talk about verbal communications. So in New Zealand they are like they don't like to pronounce words very well and so it's really it takes a while to understand and there's different accents across the country and so some are much harder to understand than others and you're like what are they saying or it can be very distracting. When you're listening to someone talk they could be saying amazing things but the way that they're saying the word hits you differently and you're like what like that doesn't have an R in it. Why does it why are you pronouncing it with an R sound you know and so that definitely affects a lot of things. So do I think New Zealanders could be better verbal communicators? Yeah I would say they do just find communicating with each other but I think sometimes they don't realize how fast they're talking you know and it's okay like if people are coming from another country and moving to your country like you don't need to change to adapt to them right but the only other thing I would say about that is that they could you could also learn from people from other countries that you know have good speaking skills or whatever speak clearly and pronounce all of the letters in the word you know you could do that but you don't have to because this is your culture and this is the way you do it and you have to adapt and I like it because I like it when people talk fast. I don't deal well with slow talkers I start to go like this and so and but I definitely like my first meal in New Zealand sitting down with a bunch of New Zealanders I had no idea what they're saying like is this even English like and it was just like so embarrassing because you're like yeah you know because you can always ask like what did you say I'm sorry could you repeat that like so many times you can only do that so many times I find that the verbal communication on the phone in New Zealand is not great I really struggle like they number one say phone numbers too fast like when they are leaving a message uh also like you know you get on the phone and say you know someone's calling about something and you have no and they say their name real fast and like where they're from like who is this and what is this about not really clear I struggle with that um with you know with some of the accents and stuff so I think it's helpful for New Zealanders to be aware that not everybody is totally necessarily understanding what you're saying you don't necessarily need to change but I think there's always room for improvement no matter who you are or where you're from um and how you speak so those are some thoughts on whether I think New Zealanders could improve their verbal communication. All right number two let's talk about written communication because this has been interesting uh since I've been here so I'm a professor I teach communication I teach marketing I teach business I've worked with students but I've worked with a lot of international students I've worked with a lot of Kiwi students so I would say everybody's struggling with writing whether you're from New Zealand from the US I mean I was a professor there too that was the number one concern at all the staff meetings like do these people know how to write so if you are in New Zealand and you feel like you are not a good writer you're not alone this is a very common trend across the world I would say maybe not everywhere I haven't been everywhere and I haven't really actually thought about you know other countries that might be better but I think it's interesting because I would say spelling in New Zealand is not very good I'm just gonna it's not very good but you know with the rise of AI with Grammarly do you need to you know there's just like is it an absolute necessary skill you know I think in general some um basic good spelling is good because there's always situations but yeah so I think spelling is interesting but this is also another thought that I had so in the school system here I've noticed that they teach I mean before university they teach very much um like an elementary school creative writing like detailed descriptive writing and then it continues on a bit in high school a little bit more straightforward depending on the subject but I think that that's interesting and I see that kind of coming off in professional world and with adults as well like very good at descriptive writing but not necessarily good always at business writing like that clear concise direct like just get to the point you know and so I so it's it's not bad I would it's just like I think it's interesting it's like I can see that in my students like that they're very good at descriptive writing or though I I mean I've never been in a place where like the students write too much all the time you know and that's just kind of I think that that's kind of how you're taught and so it makes sense um and I don't know I don't think that clear concise direct business type writing is superior in um you know in a lot of situations and so it's just very interesting the writing everybody could be better writers really no matter where you're from I guess that's really my point all right number three let's talk about nonverbal communication so if you don't know what that is nonverbal communication is all of the things that are not spoken when you're talking so me using my hands is nonverbal my eye contact is nonverbal um you know my facial expression my stance you know all of kind of the things that communicate a message if you don't know and I'm just going to give you some communication inside here that your nonverbal communication speaks way louder than what you're actually saying so if I if I'm like yesterday I love New Zealand like it's so great it's just this most amazing place you don't believe me right because my nonverbals are contradicting my what I'm saying and so you're going to believe my nonverbals okay so there's just your little lesson for the day look at that you've you learned something today maybe maybe not um but nonverbals in New Zealand are interesting so whenever you go to a new culture I highly recommend that you learn the nonverbal cues the nonverbal things that are appropriate um there's a lot of different cultures here uh that like eye contact is not necessarily a thing so like I'm like why are you not looking at me and I'm trying you know trying to look at them and they like they think it's rude that I'm staring you know and so you just need to know that you need to understand the different nonverbal cues uh you know uncomfortable like a lot of people here are uncomfortable with like that the the pausing they call it like a vocalized I guess that would be more verbal and so people kind of fill that in and so that's uncomfortable like the pausing um yeah and just you know like the nonverbal way that they carry themselves are very relaxed and casual here and you just see that in the way that they uh you know their nonverbals are reacting I tend to be very expressive right and outgoing and that's not normal here and that's fine they love it you know um I don't get like negative feedback although they're probably all thinking bad things I don't know oh well I am who I am so uh so just be aware I would just say when you come to New Zealand of some of the different nonverbal cues that you're gonna get like even at I'm really sensitive to them now I notice that when I'm hanging around Americans that are relatively new here because I help people move here from the US and so I meet a lot of person I can see like the way that they're acting and how everybody around them is reacting and they have no idea because their nonverbals are communicating something that's they don't realize and even the expressions of the people around I can see now which I would never have saw when I first came um and read and you wouldn't and you wouldn't think much of it but I you know I just from being here I guess so if you want some help um that's probably actually a really good topic I should put on my training hub so if you're in the training hub you're gonna get something on nonverbal cues you know you can talk to me I'm happy to help I am a computer communications consultant if you ever need help with anything um I love all things communication all right number four let's talk about feedback how well do New Zealanders take feedback I would say that as a general rule of thumb uh constructive criticism is avoided I've talked about this before uh I don't I think it's actually one of the big detriments to New Zealand to be honest because things don't move ahead when people don't get proper feedback they can improve and then you know mediocrity exists and continues uh and so learning how to be good at giving feedback um constructively nicely uh and being honest with that person actually really helps them so I think that people think about it a little bit wrong here they like they they don't want they avoid the conflict uh they don't want to have difficult coverage and that's not everybody I've had plenty of people here that are amazing at communicating that I'm just talking in general and I've talked about this topic before and it seems that most of you agree with me and so I'm not crazy okay uh that the feedback isn't given so people generally like if someone's maybe not good in a position they won't necessarily tell them to kind of move them into a different position or give them some professional development it's a bit avoided but my point is is that does nothing but they think that that's helping that person and it isn't it's actually not it's it's it's harming them because they're not aware okay and then now they've been in the job for 30 years now it's a little bit late to be telling on this you know and and they probably don't like what they do but they don't realize that maybe that's because I'm not great at it or this isn't really their skill set and you know it's all these things so you're not helping them you're not helping the people around you and then what happens is is when you don't have the right people in positions you lose some of your best people right because they're like I can't work with this you know I mean it can be very difficult and of course I've had very limited experience that has been my experience for sure that people don't and even when I've been in meetings and I'm giving a little bit more direct feedback or someone's giving me direct feedback the people are all comfortable with that this is not a comfortable thing to talk about so it's avoided in general and so I think that that is a big area of improvement if people want to learn how to give and it's hard I mean I don't think anybody in the world is like oh I love I love HR and giving and firing people and you know giving hard feedback I don't think anybody likes it but you can actually get better at it with experience and just being like hey you know I actually care about you being in a job where you can be the most successful and that you enjoy that uses your skill set I just don't think that this is it you know and you know in a very constructive way but if you need help with that let me know and the last area that I want to touch on briefly is the customer service here in New Zealand so in New Zealand the way that they would word it is they pay all their employees a living wage is the words that they would use so there isn't the tipping culture where like you know a waitress gets to 25 an hour and relies heavily on tips and so are have gotten really good at customer service because they have to because they have to eat right and so a New Zealander very common for them to think that's quite unfair that you should pay them a living wage and I would probably agree with them on that the other flip side is that I don't see customer service being trained well here like when even if someone's a greeter at a restaurant they're not overly I'm so many times so many restaurants I mean I've traveled the whole country that some are great but some are like you know non-enthusiastic it's very common in retail and people aren't too excited about their job or they're just they do I don't know I'm not I'm not sure that we have that like that's an appropriate answer you know there's plenty of people that do help you and it's good but it's so many times I go and they're like we don't know you know and they're they don't care to find out they don't care to like really help or they're just like oh we're out of that or you know some other reason and it's just there's just not that whole sense of like the serving the customer and kind of whatever it takes and maintaining that relationship and really valuing it and that's a generalization of course of New Zealand but I think that the communication I think some training and customer service would I think that if you own a business you could really differentiate yourself by having amazing customer service experience because I think it would be noticeably different if you own the same restaurant as someone or a cafe that someone has this down the street like I think and you had amazing service like I think you would get a lot of people there I think it would be different you know there's plenty of cafes that have servers a lot of times you just order up at the counter and they bring in and they're perfectly nice like everybody's perfectly nice but it's just not it's not the same when you live in a culture where customer service the customer is always right when it is not the same I don't know I'd be curious to hear what the rest of you think if you're from you know Asia or South America or Japan or like all different all different places like England even you know Europe like what is like what do you think about the customer service here in New Zealand am I am I missing something or you know I don't I'm okay with it I am I prefer to just get things myself and I have people keep constantly like okay would you like a refill would you like that you know always interrupting like I would say overall I'm okay with it but it does get frustrating when it's just clearly that people aren't they don't have that engagement in their in their job and I think there's just a matter of training on that and learning how to communicate that but yeah I would love to hear your thoughts on that because that's just my experience well I hope you enjoyed the video today it was a little bit of a different one when we talk about communication in New Zealand and let me know your thoughts let me know if I was like all way off or you're like totally that's totally been my I just kind of wanted to open up the conversation around how things are communicated here generally because I could have gone into like a million specifics and maybe I will if you guys are interested in that and want to talk about that more specifically if you need help with communication reach out to me you can get my email in the description and I'm happy to help if you are running into a tough conversation that you're not sure how to handle we can talk it through I'll see you guys next week