Speaking polish to polish customers

Amara

Hi!
Friend of mine is Polish and she works in beauty salon. Many customers are Polish too and some of them speak very little english. They know she's Polish and start to speak in their language straight way, some of them said they're coming there because of her. Now her boss said to her to stop talking to polish customers in polish and speak English only, as it's inappropriate to speak polish , while english customers are present. What should she do? Say to customer in english, when she's starting in polish- "No , speak english please". Some of them don't even speak english. Boss didn't give her any instruction other then : stop speaking polish to polish customers.

robatwork

My opinion: The boss is being daft in insisting on this. She will probably lose custom.

The facts: It's a not unreasonable instruction to your "friend". She will probably lose her job if she disobeys.

Amara

Friend is not me

I'd like to know , what to advise her. What she supposed to do, tell her customers: "No polish, please"? Or should she insist on her boss to provide with precise instructions? Or write a note on the door: "Dear customers, speak english only"? Is it even legal?

motorguy

Amara wrote: »

Friend is not me

I'd like to know , what to advise her. What she supposed to do, tell her customers: "No polish, please"? Or should she insist on her boss to provide with precise instructions? Or write a note on the door: "Dear customers, speak english only"? Is it even legal?

Speak english to the customers wherever possible and keep the polish to a minimum amount.

elsien

Has she asked her boss for clarification as to how to speak to non English speaking customers? That conversation should be the starting point.

Or she could find a job at a more sensible place and take her customers with her.

Comms69

Amara wrote: »

Friend is not me

I'd like to know , what to advise her. What she supposed to do, tell her customers: "No polish, please"? Or should she insist on her boss to provide with precise instructions? Or write a note on the door: "Dear customers, speak english only"? Is it even legal?

Why wouldn’t it be legal?

xapprenticex

Its not illegal to request a person who chooses to live in England (an English speaking country) to speak English lol


I imagine your Boss and those who dont know polish dont like not understanding what is being said around them, its understandable.



I used to get this issue around Urdu speaking people, 100% of the time (in the kind of agency work i used to do shortly after school) if there were more than 2 of them, English went out the window, and if it was majority urdu speaking people then have fun having people blatantly taking #### about you and you cant do anything about it, especially when you're the only one who cant understand the language.



I digress, tell them to make effort towards learning the language of the country they are living in.

Amara

Comms69 wrote: »

Why wouldn’t it be legal?

I don't know, that's why I'm asking.

nicechap

Is the beauty salon in Wales? If so, what happens when welsh speakers come in speaking welsh?

elsien

xapprenticex wrote: »

Its not illegal to request a person who chooses to live in England (an English speaking country) to speak English lol


I imagine your Boss and those who dont know polish dont like not understanding what is being said around them, its understandable.



I used to get this issue around Urdu speaking people, 100% of the time (in the kind of agency work i used to do shortly after school) if there were more than 2 of them, English went out the window, and if it was majority urdu speaking people then have fun having people blatantly taking #### about you and you cant do anything about it, especially when you're the only one who cant understand the language.



I digress, tell them to make effort towards learning the language of the country they are living in.

How do you know they were blatantly taking the !!!! if you couldn't understand what they were saying?

Amara

xapprenticex wrote: »

Its not illegal to request a person who chooses to live in England (an English speaking country) to speak English lol


I imagine your Boss and those who dont know polish dont like not understanding what is being said around them, its understandable.



I used to get this issue around Urdu speaking people, 100% of the time (in the kind of agency work i used to do shortly after school) if there were more than 2 of them, English went out the window, and if it was majority urdu speaking people then have fun having people blatantly taking #### about you and you cant do anything about it, especially when you're the only one who cant understand the language.



I digress, tell them to make effort towards learning the language of the country they are living in.

I understand an issue. I'm Polish myself , although thread is not about me. I'm not sure suggesting customers to speak english only is my friend's job, though . Beauty spot is this kind of business, when you go to rewind. Why customers shouldn't speak their own language in relaxing enviroment?