Robert Lloyd's Faculty Spotlight

LANGUAGE CONNECTS PEOPLE

BY DR. ROBERT LLOYD

SINCE FORT HAYS’ ORIGINS

as a military outpost set on the border of an unexplored expanse of the Western Plains, we have always been uniquely positioned to engage new parts of the world. The university’s sustained and unprecedented buildout into China 25 years ago echoes a lingering commitment to the same ideal.

Today, the Global Affairs office remains intensely focused on expanding the international reach of Fort Hays, underwritten by our institutional value of global engagement. We operate by the axiom of “bringing Fort Hays to the world, and the world to Fort Hays.” The manifold, budding partnerships developed in recent years in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia afford us exposure to unique cultures. As we invest in this new portfolio of partnerships, I believe the moderating factor and great connector is language.

There is no shortage of bilingual staff and students in the Global Affairs team. The assortment of languages in this office includes fluent speakers of Chinese, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, local African languages, Guarani, and Hindi. An inventory of the broader

FHSU campus would demonstrate even wider breadth.

When I was asked to join the Global Affairs team, I became intensely eager to use and expand the various languages I have pursued. At the age of five, I became fascinated with the idea of mastering another language. Living in West Germany during the Cold War exposed me to the multi-lingual milieu of Europe (hearing neighborhood kids speaking German, and the occasional weekend vacations in France, and Switzerland). My early childhood left me incredulous that someone could go their entire lifetime without speaking a single word of English. I wanted to understand and interconnect, and have spent the last 35 years pursuing this captivation.

In my role in Global Affairs, opportunities abound to utilize language skills. On a recent trip to our Bolivian partner, I was able to speak with parents in their native Spanish. This is the language I have studied longer than any other (and speak every day at home with my Colombian wife and children). I was completely comfortable answering their questions and engaging in meaningful conversations about their children’s

educational aspirations. Being able to do so in Spanish gave them additional comfort as they considered sending their children to another part of the world.

I was hired as the Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship international coordinator during the pandemic. And knowing that 1) I couldn’t use funds to attend conferences, and 2) FHSU was pursuing partners in West Africa, I leveraged two years of my professional development funds to study French intensely – private lessons, software, and subscriptions. While my French in that time has developed to a lower intermediate level, I voyaged to Africa this year equipped with enough to talk conversationally with students, parents, and partner administrators.

I HAVE FOUND THAT LANGUAGE CONNECTS PEOPLE. SPEAKING TO SOMEONE IN THEIR NATIVE TONGUE INSTANTLY ALLOWS FOR DEEPER RELATIONSHIPS AND RAPPORT. IT ALLOWS FOR SHORT MOMENTS OF HUMOR OR HUMAN CONNECTION. FHSU’S INTERNATIONALIZATION EFFORTS WILL EXPOSE US INCREASINGLY TO NEW LANGUAGES AND CULTURES.

ports or boarding planes so that I might listen or even get a comment in.

The second recommendation is much more challenging, which is to have the courage to be embarrassed. When you make a mistake in a foreign language, your brain instantly marks that moment as a noteworthy event, improving the chances of remembering and speaking correctly the next time. I’ve stumbled through poor pronunciations, misused or misapplied idioms, and have told punchlines to jokes that make no sense in a translated language. On a recent trip to Ivory Coast, I told a parent at a recruiting brunch that I was a professor of “gestational science,” which resembles the French word for “management” (gestation vs. gestion).

I have found that language connects people. Speaking to someone in their native tongue instantly allows for deeper relationships and rapport. It allows for short moments of humor or human connection. FHSU’s internationalization efforts will expose us increasingly to new languages and cultures. I believe fervently that making an effort to engage our stakeholders on their terms shows respect and advances relationships. Fortunately, my story and love of language is not unique at Fort Hays State. The collection of faculty and staff who are natives or learners of foreign languages is impressive, and we should leverage that advantage in order to live out our global engagement ideals.

I encourage my students who express interest in mastering a foreign language to approach this learning goal with serious conviction. “Practice” and “courage” are the distinct strategies I suggest as means to propel them into the next level of proficiency. Practice comes by restlessly chasing every opportunity to engage with native speakers and content - switching their phones and computers from English, starting a conversation with someone on an airplane, watching movies they know by heart dubbed in the target language, or taking a spring break trip to a foreign country instead of skiing in Colorado. My colleague Phil accuses me of “drifting” towards people having conversations in German or French while we wait in air-

Doing this also means putting yourself in situations that require focus because English is not an option. At a conference I attend each year in Germany, scholars have a choice of presenting in either German or English. In the spirit of self-challenge and hoping to improve an upper intermediate command of German, I presented a manuscript in German with the help of a co-presenter (my German tutor). I came away from that experience with a deeper command of German academic vocabulary, despite the multitude of mistakes I made interacting with the scholarly audience. A week later, I did the same at a conference in Champagne, France – with the aid of Dr. Nahid Anaraki, an FHSU colleague in the Finance Department.

BIO:

Dr. Robert Lloyd is a tenured professor in the Department of Management and the Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship Director of Strategic Partnerships. In addition to teaching management courses, he has led study abroad experiences to the Caribbean, South America, and Europe. He serves as the lead consultant for the Management Development Center and regularly provides guest lectures at universities around the world.