Foreign Languages in the workplace

gettingready

remorseless wrote: »

Because I would feel as I am made to feel ashamed of my ethnicity. Unless the workplace has strict policy of 'No talk unless it's business related' I would find the ban or even mentioning the ban quite discriminatory. Most workplaces have some level of social interaction amongst peers and having this 'forced' to be English-only is a bit too much.

Please do tell me you are just trolling around and this is not for real? Because if it is - sorry, get a grip.

Language has NOTHING to do with ethnicity, there are variety of languages spoken in most countries and if you live/work in UK - !!!!!! get it in your head that English is an official language here and it should be the only language spoken at work.

You want to speak whatever other language you speak - take a friend for lunch or do it with friends after hours over coffee/at home/by phone hatter.

If you are at work - you speak the language of the country where you live and the country that gave you the opportunity to have this job in the first place.

What discrimination? This attitude is simply shocking.

And no, I was not born here so despite having British passport I am a foreigner kind of BUT I live here and I respect the fact this is UK and the official language is ENGLISH. I speak English at work even with people who speak my first language - and that includes ciggy breaks and lunch etc. We speak English. We do not want to offend anyone by subjecting them to listening to lingo they do not understand and can imagine the worst. It is good manners.

I would feel afraid of 'what is next' ban?

Next ban would to stop people biting the hand that feeds them. Simples.

szam_

I think it's pretty reasonable request and would argue it has more benefits than drawbacks. If I was running a multicultural team of people who could all speak English to a good level, I would probably make it a rule too.

Definitely not discriminatory, I'd say it's more good management and a good idea (in my opinion).

gettingready

Well - we are not talking about a NMW warehouse jobs where really people taken on can genuinely not be able to speak proper English and often communicate with broken English and a lot of hands movements....as low skilled foreign workers often do

We are talking here (judging by the OP first post) of a large multinational company where professional people work and had to attend an interview, in English to get those jobs so their fluency in English is assumed.

It is not that they can not speak English, they chose not to - for whatever reasons. And expect everyone around them to just shut up or they cry discrimination.

Insane..

gettingready

How would you feel if you were asked to speak with a Received Pronunciation (RP) because some foreign employee in the office couldn't understand your accent while you talk with someone from the same town?

Absurd comparison.

You have no idea how often I get "press 1 for English" when calling whatever company customer service only to be put through to someone who I can not understand to save my life as call centres are based God knows where and their version of English topped up but very heavy accents and often bad phone line are nothing like I ever heard before.. And living and working in London for the past 25 years I can understand most accents. And what? And I have to live with that - ate least they are trying...

DandelionPatrol

gettingready wrote: »

... and if you live/work in UK - !!!!!! get it in your head that English is an official language here and it should be the only language spoken at work.

Yr un gair ateb i hynny yw 'Cymreig'. [The one word answer to that is 'Welsh'.]

To my mind it would be unacceptable to ban Welsh. And once that point is conceded, there is no point in banning any other language, because almost any other likely language is probably more accessible.

DandelionPatrol

duchy wrote: »

I wouldn't go to Germany and expect to be able to speak English at work ....... It doesn't mean I'm shamed by the fact I'm not German -it means I've chosen to work in a country where my first language is not their language and I'd expect to abide by their customs. If I didn't want to then I'd choose to work in a country where English was the first language.


When I'm at work -I'm at work -If I want a nice chat in my own language there is nothing to stop me and an English speaking colleague going out to lunch and chatting in English there .


I see nothing wrong with insisting that all public conversations in a business environment should be in a language that excludes no-one. (and really private chats shouldn't be going on in the workplace normally anyway)

Neither would I expect to go to Germany and speak English at work. But equally, if I found someone who speaks English, I would not expect to be banned from speaking English with them. Probably many companies in EU countries would be pleased to have English speaking people on their staff and conducting some of the company's business in English.

If it were my show in a UK business, the official language would be English, but there would be no ban on any other language, just an expectation that any conversation would be conducted entirely in English if this was necessary to prevent excluding anyone from part of the conversation. And if anyone complained about being excluded from a conversation they were not party to, I would be telling them to go and learn the language in question if they really felt the need to earwig.

Crikey, banning other languages is about equivalent to banning whispering. You don't ban it, you deal with it as bad manners

gettingready

Probably many companies in EU countries would be pleased to have English speaking people on their staff and conducting some of the company's business in English.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww how cute you think this way. Bless you...:rotfl:.

Have you traveled around EU on business ? If you did, you would have known that most of EU business people/office workers already speak very good English AND often French/German/Spanish.

It is mostly English speaking people that are monolingual and with their mind set to not learning any other languages lol

DandelionPatrol

gettingready wrote: »

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww how cute you think this way. Bless you...:rotfl:.

Have you traveled around EU on business ? If you did, you would have known that most of EU business people/office workers already speak very good English AND often French/German/Spanish.

It is mostly English speaking people that are monolingual and with their mind set to not learning any other languages lol

Well, exactly. I don't see why you are patronising me for taking forward the case against monolingualism.

antrobus

gettingready wrote: »

....And no, I was not born here so despite having British passport I am a foreigner kind of BUT I live here and I respect the fact this is UK and the official language is ENGLISH. ....

There are a number of countries in the world where English is an 'official language'. Funnily enough, the United Kingdom is not one of them.

DandelionPatrol wrote: »

Yr un gair ateb i hynny yw 'Cymreig'. [The one word answer to that is 'Welsh'.]

To my mind it would be unacceptable to ban Welsh. And once that point is conceded, there is no point in banning any other language, because almost any other likely language is probably more accessible.

If you were in Wales, it would be a bit more than "unacceptable". The Welsh language has official status in Wales. Oddly enough, I think it's the only language that has official status anywhere in the UK.

Doshwaster

duchy wrote: »

I wouldn't go to Germany and expect to be able to speak English at work .......

Go to businesses in Germany and you will find lots of English being spoken. Multinational companies with offices around the world and staff of many nationalities need a common language - and that is usually English. In fact in most European countries you wouldn't be able to get a professional job unless your English was very good.