Where are the Non Native Speakers?
LinkedIn, the Facebook for professionals around the world, is an essential tool for people in international business, and increasingly for the business of academic research, too. However, even for a country that became one of Asia’s Tiger economies built on international trade, Taiwan’s number of LinkedIn accounts is very few, active users fewer, and active posters even fewer still (see below Figure [1]). This is also true of other countries like Vietnam and South Korea whose GDP depends largely on foreign trade. This is a shame because LinkedIn offers tremendous opportunities to build networks of buyers and suppliers across the globe.
So, why do so many business people involved in international trade in these foreign trade dependent countries have no presence on LinkedIn?
I believe the reason is mainly related to a lack of knowledge and lack of language confidence.
Since English is the international language of business, and since most of the content on LinkedIn is in English, many non-English speakers may not be confident enough to set up an account and participate in the world of business opportunities that LinkedIn offers. If this is true, then it is surprising that there seems to be little available help for non-English speakers to prepare them to enter the world of LinkedIn.
Still, there is no shortage blogs and vlogs by influencers to
- train people to set up LinkedIn accounts,
- write impactful profiles,
- Develop professional networks,
- develop strategies for writing posts,
- maximize readership and engagement of posts, and
- become a thought leader in your industry.
Yet these blogs, articles, and vlogs are clearly directed to Native English Speakers, or very highly proficient Non Native Speakers of English.
What seems to be ironically lacking in this global professional platform, are tips, guidelines, samples and practice to help Non-native Speakers of English (NNSs) get started and overcome their fears of putting themselves out there on the such a professional platform, which is already stressful enough for Native Speakers.
The value of LinkedIn
LinkedIn is essentially a networking and news-providing service. Its members include both workers and employers who create profiles which can let them “connect” to each other in an online social network. This network can easily translate into real-world professional relationships. It has also increasingly become the social medium for learning and gaining professional knowledge. By following groups and industry-leading companies and thought leaders, LinkedIn rivals Twitter as the best source of industry news. Unlike Twitter, though, LinkedIn is a lot less hostile and more respectful of content and content producers. There is no tolerance on LinkedIn for haters and trolls. This should help reduce the fears of Non native speakers of English from contributing to LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is for all workers in International business – both Native and Non-native Speakers of English
On its website, LinkedIn says its vision is to “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce” (LinkedIn, 2021). And while it may not be clear how it creates economic opportunity for many local or manual workers, LinkedIn has almost ¾ billion members, and this means that it is indeed indispensable for the global workforce actively involved in international trade in countries not only like the USA, Canada and Australia, but also Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
With more than 740 million users in over 200 countries (see above Figure [2]), LinkedIn’s grand mission statement of “to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful” is not an exaggeration. With probably less than 200 million Native English Speaking (NSs) users, that means that more than 500 million users are Non-native English Speakers (NNSs) and understand very well the challenges of using a non-native language to conduct business. For that matter, it should be remembered that most international business transactions happen between speakers whose native language is not English!
English as a Lingua Franca
English is used by NNSs and NSs alike for business communication around the world. And when English is usually used around the world, it is worth noting that it is not the native language of the speakers involved. In this situation, we can call this global English “English as a Lingua Franca” or ELF.
ELF is different than NS English because it is functional in its basic purpose to communicate meaning. Here, the key quality in ELF usage is “intelligibility”, not “correct” usage. NNSs may not have the control over English usage that NSs have, but it is interesting to note that NNSs are often better able to communicate with other than NSs because they have a better sense of what core aspects of English other NNSs understand. NSs, on the other hand, often assume too much and don’t realize how much of their language is actually made of idioms that NNSs never learn in their English textbooks.
Communicating in English on LinkedIn
However, it is one thing for a NNS to feel comfortable writing an email or text to an international colleague in English, but it is quite different to write and share an English post on the world’s most professional social media platform: LinkedIn. Writing a post here is a performance where you are not writing to one person, you are writing to everyone. In this kind of performance, intelligibility needs to be matched by valuable content and clarity of message.
How do we do that?
Creating a message involves breaking down a complicated idea and packaging it with words and phrases to communicate it clearly. This is important because LinkedIn is the most professional and well-respected social media platform, which means most of its users not only use it for networking and job finding, but also for learning.
But few feel confident enough to actually post on it. This is a pity because many people have a lot of experience and knowledge to share with others. In fact, only 3 million users out of 740 million post content on a weekly basis; in other words, only about 1% of LinkedIn’s 260 million monthly users share posts, which leaves the 220 million users consuming content..
However, how many of these 1% contributors are Non-native speakers writing in English for their ELF network?
The need for ELF training
LinkedIn doesn’t offer these statistics, but we can safely assume it is only a tiny part of the 1%. There is therefore the need to help more NNSs develop the confidence to write and share valuable content with readers in the same industry. Some of the main focuses of this training should include the following:
- different types of content and structures
- Ways to clarify your message
- Strategies for simple and effective posting
- Guidelines for clear and concise language use.
With more knowledge of the value of LinkedIn for their careers and professional development as both a consumer and producer of content, and with more ELF skills to write clear, concise and valuable content, NNSs can more fully engage in LinkedIn to make the platform a truly global platform of value for business people in any country.
References
1. https://napoleoncat.com/stats/linkedin-users-in-taiwan/2019/11
