"Wed-Nes-Day"

I have been coaching this brilliant scientist at a world-renowned federal institute for about a year now. “Neeja” was born and raised in India and obtained her PhD here in America many years ago. She also worked in the pharmaceutical industry for several years before she joined this prestigious agency.

I help her improve her communication, neutralize her accent, correct her grammatical mistakes, change her intonation and emphasis, smooth out her clipped way of speaking. I also support her efforts to deliver the best messages to her audiences: international conference attendees, her colleagues, subordinates and supervisors alike. I coach her how to deal with workplace conflicts and how to take on new and challenging tasks as well.

A major reason she came to work with me was that her supervisor thought her way of communicating lacked tact and diplomacy, ruffling feathers in some quarters. She had been in my training class two years earlier and seemed to enjoy and benefit from the class. So she was asked to consider working with me as her coach.

At her suggestion, we met on campus one day after I finished another training for another group. This was her way of “interviewing” me. I talked about the value and experience of working with me in the large class of 30 people, but noting that instead of getting a fraction of my attention, she would now be receiving 100%.

As we chatted, she asked me to give her some references. I was taken aback, thinking she already knew my training and style. I thought of a TV correspondent who worked with me to polish her speaking as a perfect client for her to speak with. But “Neeja” didn’t seem to want to talk to her because, “this is someone from outside of the organization.” It’s just a phone call, I said. She insisted on someone on campus. I gave her another scientist who had already written a glowing endorsement letter.

The paperwork took some time – this is the federal government – but she eventually pushed through the paperwork. ---

We started working together. I would go through her presentations and remarks and find all sorts of challenges for her to correct and focus on. Some were grammatical errors, some pronunciation, or rather, mispronunciation. There were issues of accent, intonation (or lack thereof), and incorrect emphasis on words and syllables. Among her challenges was her inability to differentiate the V and W, which is very typical among Indian, Slavic and some Chinese speakers.

She’d say, “vee are going to rewiew the bioequiwalence materials.” I had to help her to change it to, “we are going to review the bioequivalence materials.” Fixing this kind of habit of many years can be rather challenging, and she still has work to do. Occasionally, the errant V or W still slips through her lips. But she is doing much better now with that.

There remains a list of other odd or bad habits as well, despite English being one of the languages she grew up in. The word “first” can sound like “forced,” “confirm” sounds more like “conform”, which has caused her considerable issues. Tank you instead of thank you, tawts instead of thoughts, etc.

One day, "Neeja" completely surprised me. She said she’d meet with me the following wed- nes-day. In 20 years of working with many non-native English speakers on modifying and neutralizing their accent, this was something new. I asked her to repeat what she said. She did so. I asked her how long she’d been in America. Almost 20 years. I asked if she had ever heard other people say wed-nes-day. The answer was no. Why would you say it? She had always said it this way and didn’t know it was wrong. I told her to say Wenzday, not wed-nes-day. I added, wed-nes-day is not a word, nor it is acceptable in the professional world. When she attends international conferences and speaks on behalf of the U.S. government, wed-nes-day will not be viewed in a favorable light.

In the following weeks, I still would hear her say wed-nes-day from time to time. Each time, I asked her to correct it. And each time she would then say it correctly, seemingly without difficulty. I told her the reason she continued the mispronunciation was that she didn’t practice the correct way enough. She didn’t make a point of practicing so her facial muscle would be used to the new speech pattern. Old habits die hard. And she hadn’t been following my directions. 

Then one day recently she surprised me again. "Neeja" recounted that one of her staff members, a guy who is also from India, said wed-nes-day while they were conversing. She put a stop to that, telling him to say Wenzday instead.

A happy ending, perhaps, for this Wednesday story.

If you or someone you know could use my coaching, please send them my way, [email protected]. You can also simply sign up to do an assessment session with me, https://trapac.net/coaching/.

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Dottie Li and her company, TransPacific Communications, an SBA 8(a) certified company, have been providing services for federal and private entities to break down cultural and communication barriers in the workforce. She is the recipient of the Best Cross-Cultural Communicator of the Year Award in 2013 by the Maryland Washington Minority Companies Association, Mandarin Leader in America in 2018, an Outstanding Chinese American in the Metro DC area in 2016, Top 100 Women in Maryland in 2015, etc. You can read her columns on accent and networking.