We all speak English but do we mean the same thing?

“We all speak English, so why is it still so hard for a multicultural team to work smoothly together?”

I hear this question all the time. We assume that sharing a language means sharing an understanding. But anyone who has worked across borders knows: that’s simply not how communication works. Take the Dutch and the Belgians. Same region. Similar language. Neighbours. And still, they regularly misunderstand each other.

It is not a vocabulary problem

In multicultural collaboration, the real friction rarely sits in the vocabulary. Because speaking the words is not the same as speaking the meaning. It sits in format, nuance, timing, tone, hierarchy, directness, expectations: the invisible layers underneath the words.

Here’s a fun fact that illustrates the gap:

English: 600,000–1,000,000 words

Dutch: ±250,000

German: ±300,000

French: ±150,000

English simply has more linguistic “surface area”. Native speakers choose from a wide palette of synonyms to fine‑tune meaning. Non‑native speakers often don’t simply because their languages don’t work that way.

So yes, we may all speak English. But we absolutely do not speak the same cultural language. And that’s exactly where multicultural teams either struggle… or thrive.

At Behind the Screens, we help teams make those invisible dynamics visible so collaboration becomes clearer, smoother and far more human.

If your team works across borders, this is where the real work begins.