Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The privilege of native English speakers in reaching high-status, influential positions in EA, published by Alix Pham on December 21, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
Huge thanks to Konrad Seifert, Marcel Steimke, Ysaline Bourgine, Milena Canzler, Alex Rahl-Kaplan, Marieke de Visscher, and Guillaume Vorreux for the valuable feedback provided on drafts of this post, and to many others for the conversations that lead to me writing it.
Views & mistakes are my own.
TL;DR
Being a non-native English speaker makes one sound less convincing. However, poor inclusion of non-native English speakers means missed perspectives in decision-making. Hence, it's a vicious circle where lack of diversity persists: native English culture prevails at the thought leadership level and neglects other cultures by failing to acknowledge that it is inherently harder to stand out as a non-native English speaker.
Why I am writing this
I'm co-directing EA Switzerland (I'm originally from France), and I've been thinking about the following points for some time. I've been invited to speak at the Panel on Community Building at EAG Boston 2023, where I shared a rougher version of those thoughts. I was pretty scared to share this in a place where the vast majority of attendees matched the description "native English speaker", but after talking to a few people, it felt true. Many of the non-native speakers related, and many of the native speakers acknowledged it.
steerers). I'm pretty scared to share it here too of course, but
it's probably worth it.
An unconscious bias against non-native English speakers
The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is. Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000.
Lera Boroditsky
Non-native English speakers sound less convincing
The neural pathways that form in your brain during childhood will affect how you think as an adult. Depending on where and with which languages and cultures you grew up, the conceptual space in which your brain processes and communicates information will be different. Then, when a non-native speaker expresses their thoughts and opinions in English, most times it will be lower-fidelity than native speakers, and will probably be
less convincing and/or
sound less smart.[1]
Besides, I can relate to the experience shared
here that native English speakers are sometimes hard to follow when your own native language (and culture) is not English.[2] I guess it's especially true when your English is good enough that it doesn't appear necessary to speak slower - but I think for most of us, it still is necessary to speak slower or repeat stuff, and avoid referencing local pop culture. Usually though, non-native speakers would like to avoid asking to slow down, repeat, or clarify because, on top of being burdensome, it can be associated with incompetence.
Hence, it's important not to confuse competence with language proficiency, and keep in mind that for the majority of non-native English speakers, it's harder to engage with the materials, harder to understand and intervene in debates, and harder to speak and write with fidelity to one's thoughts. As a consequence, it's then harder to be understood, stand out, get hired, and get heard. A similar case has been made for
less-STEM-than-average people in EA.[3]
Additionally, the English language and vocabulary might also not allow one to express the full length of their thoughts - words might not even exist for them. Different languages can allow for different profiles of available concepts and thoughts, because their
structure and vocabulary vary.
Poor inclusion of non-native English speakers means missed perspectives
One could consider the
6 dimensions of culture as a good illustration of the effect of culture (and then, ...

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