Darcy Quinn
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For native and near-native speakers

The International Room Check

Fluent speakers are often the hardest to understand in international meetings. I'm a native speaker who has lived in 17 countries, and I've watched idioms, speed and indirectness quietly exclude half the room more times than I can count.

Twelve statements. Rate how often each applies to you.

  1. 1. I use sports or cultural metaphors to make a point.
  2. 2. I use phrasal verbs like “circle back” or “touch base”.
  3. 3. I use humour that relies on shared cultural knowledge.
  4. 4. Colleagues ask me to repeat or slow down.
  5. 5. I speak at the same pace with international colleagues as with native colleagues.
  6. 6. I pack several ideas into one sentence.
  7. 7. I signal disagreement through understatement, e.g. “That's an interesting idea”.
  8. 8. I make requests as suggestions, e.g. “It might be worth…”.
  9. 9. I expect people to read between the lines.
  10. 10. I assume silence means agreement.
  11. 11. I rarely summarise decisions at the end of a meeting.
  12. 12. I don't check whether my point has landed.

Rate all twelve statements to see your result.

A quick self-check to get you thinking — not a validated psychometric test.