About different languages being spoken at work?

[purplesnake]

To be honest, I'm scared to post this at the risk of sounding a bit racist, but I don't intend it to be taken like that at all.

I work, in London, for a company which has an incredibly diverse employee base - being British definitely makes you a minority. I'm not going to debate whether that's a good or bad thing.

Anyway, a lot of my coworkers are from mainland Europe and frequently talk amongst themselves at the desks in their native languages. I speak semi-decent French and Spanish but nowhere near good enough to understand them (I am trying to improve though!) and I find it a bit intimidating to be sat at my desk, knowing they're talking but having no idea what they're saying. I also feel like if they are talking about work, they should speak in English so that the rest of us, even if we just overhear things, can have an idea of what's going on.

Of course, if they are talking to a French speaking client on the phone, for example, then I have no issue with them speaking French. Or if they wanted to grab a coffee and chat about personal things in their own language, good for them.

AIBU to expect that in a business environment in an English speaking country, people should be speaking English?

[TheNumberfaker]

Yabu. Just try to view it as a way that you can concentrate on your own work.

[angryburd]

If they're not talking to you, it's none of your business.

[lljkk]

It wouldn't bother me, as long as there was no evidence that people were doing it just to leave me out. I really don't need to know what's going on unless it affects me. I like listening to other languages.

My office the New Zealand-Dutchman, Irishman & Canadian get going about Rugby. I really wish they had a non-English language to share so I could more easily tune them out. Would sound like interesting background noise if only it was Polish or Swahili they could natter in.

[Somtamthai]

YABU

At my work about 6 languages are spoken. If you want to understand everything then learn the language.

I live abroad and if it was insisted that everything be spoken in the native language then it would be miserable.

Also if they were speaking English you wouldn’t notice/hear so well therefore, you’d need to listen in rather than overhear.

[kmc1111]

I’d say I hear about 20 languages a day at work. Can’t say it’s ever bothered me. I’ve actually picked up a little Mandarin by accident which is nice.

If I needed to understand something I’d be part of the conversation, and if I don’t then it doesn’t matter, and not understanding simply makes it easier to tune out.

[Tantpoke]

I have worked in similar environments and yes I have to say at first it does feel really strange actually but you just get used to it after a while.

And after a while you start to really enjoy the fact that you can't understand what half the other employees are saying in their respective languages so there is less crappy office politics to get involved in.

It really is a blessing in disguise.

[Littlechocola]

I assume that if you need to know something it is communicated in a way that you understand? If yes then I don’t see the issue.

[Ski40]

In the company where I worked we had employees from about 20 different countries and it was company policy to speak English at all times. There were always the same groups of people getting in "trouble" for speaking in their own language. To be fair, I guess it's a bit horrible hearing a bunch of girls giggling and talking in another language in the ladies' and wondering if they are laughing at you! 😁
I was in HR and had no end of people come up to complain about it. It was also seen as something that stopped people from integrating and mingling properly with others. Not to mention it was an engineering environment where being able to communicate precisely was crucial to the end product.
I didn't particularly give a turnip myself but I was made to "enforce" this by management. I am actually Spanish and used to yap away happily in Spanish with my fellow Spaniards if we were alone, but if someone walked in we would switch to English immediately. It was company policy- and respect too.
I'm interested to hear other people's views on this as it was debated a lot at work.

[Ivebeenaroundtheblock]

depends what they are saying. chatting about home country politics or flights is one thing. catty gossip another.

[joeytribbiani]

I am 'that' foreigner and wouldn't dream of speaking my lingo at work with colleagues.. I think it's rude when people do that. So no yanbu.

[ThisIsTheFirstStep]

Sometimes it’s just way easier to communicate in your own language.

[catinapoolofsunshine]

YABU

DH is German and works in a Spanish owned company in Germany. The nature of the work means the employees are from all over the world. Business meetings and emails are in English, because it's a common language, and official literature is issued in Spanish and English, not in German at all... in one to one and small group conversations people speak Spanish, Italian and Polish to one another as often as they do German!

Why is English in England special? If conversations are private you don't have a right to insist they are in English just because you are in an English speaking country.

Its different if you are part of a group situation like the small talk before a meeting all sitting together around the table and being deliberately excluded, that's not acceptable. However if you are just earwigging why should people speak in what might be both of their second or third languages instead of their common native tongue so that you can be nosy!

If its an overheard conversation you are not part of its weird to assume it's contents have to be public.

[corythatwas]

It depends on the setting of the conversation. If it's when you're all seated at table together or meant to be solving a problem together, then it's very rude. If there are two people seated apart having a private conversation then it's no more rude than not speaking loudly enough for you to overhear.

The other issue you need to be aware of is that if they are not able to practise their French in a natural setting, then they will gradually start losing that ability to speak to clients in French which presumably makes them an asset to your firm. Language erosion is a real thing. I had a former colleague who was a speaker of the same language as me, and you could hear how her language skills were gradually going.

The firm can't expect them to be able to speak fluently to a client if they never get given the chance to speak it to anybody else, any more than you could expect a footballer to score goals if he was never allowed to train.

I work in an environment where it is essential for many of my colleagues to keep their fluency, so they use every opportunity to work on it. Doesn't worry me one bit.

[missperegrinespeculiar]

I think it's tricky, I believe that in general it is rude to speak in a language somebody present cannot understand, that said, if you are in a big office with say twenty people, and three out of the twenty are speaking to each other in their own language about something that does not concern you then there isn't really anything to complain about, just go about your own business and talk to the other 17 people there!

I think in the latter case, it is usually people who are not very confident in themselves that get bothered, because they fear people are gossiping or laughing about them, but reasonably, in most cases, this is not going to be true, people have better things to do than talk about you!

[RosiePosiePuddle]

Yanbu. There should be an official language. If the business language is English, then it should be English during office hours. It prevents cliques forming and allows others to be aware of what is going on. However if your colleagues are conducting business in their language it becomes harder to enforce.

Personally I can't stand it when people who are capable of speaking another language do it in the presence of others who can't understand that language. It is very excluding. I have been on the receiving end. Now I am fluent in another language I would not and do not do it others. It is rude.

[corythatwas]

I also always wonder if people would expect the same of two English speakers working on the continent: that they would never speak anything except French or German or Swedish in the workplace from their first day on the job.

When I was at uni, there was an English professor, fairly well known in his field, who used to give occasional lectures. He had been 10 years in the country and was married to a Swedish woman, but he not only gave all his lectures in Swedish but peppered them with typically English academic jokes. After 10 years he made the final concession of allowing the audience to ask questions in their own native language (as long as they spoke slowly) but he still answered them in English.

[comfortandjoy]

I think it’s rude to start talking in another language that excludes others if you are able to speak a common language. I was in this situation with a group of young Germans who spoke excellent English but when I left the room they switched to speaking German , making the Japanese and Sri Lankan woman feel excluded and uncomfortable. I had to bring it up a few times , they hadn’t realised how it would make the others feel.

[catinapoolofsunshine]

comfort in what situation was that? It depends massively. If the people were all in a group doing something together then of course it's rude to exclude somebody. However if they weren't anything to do with each other its weird to police their language to ensure that everyone can eavesdrop properly...

[eggsandchips]

I agree with you OP.

[Mightymucks]

YANBU. I had to deal with quite a serious issue at work with this. Admin staff who were discussing their work in their own language. And they weren’t being very careful about confidentiality issues (NHS) because they assumed nobody would understand them. It also came up as a bullying issue as it was being used to exclude people and make it more difficult to do their jobs as important discussions they should have been able to contribute took place in different languages.

Communication, open communication in the
workplace is vital. We had a rule at first that only non-work issues were to be discussed, but this was flouted as they didn’t think they’d be caught again.

But they were. It’s now only allowed in break areas.

[Mightymucks]

I also always wonder if people would expect the same of two English speakers working on the continent: that they would never speak anything except French or German or Swedish in the workplace from their first day on the job.

Yes they would. They would only hire someone who could communicate in their language so they would expect them to do so. It’s not a matter of people not being capable, it’s people choosing to do it.

In fact if you started speaking English at work in France they’d string you up.

[catinapoolofsunshine]

Mightymucks I don't know about France specifically (do you live there or are you assuming?) but in Germany and many other countries there are companies with international employees who speak English as a common language not the national language.

We live in Germany and whilst I speak German at work, DH who is German speaks English at work. So it is not true at all that English people working abroad are expected to speak the national language all the time from day 1, or ever.

[lunar1]

You speak the primary language of the country you are in while in the work place, anything else is cliquey and excluding.

[catinapoolofsunshine]

lunar that really isn't how it works in a lot of countries though. Also having a private conversation isn't meant to include everyone. Is it also cliquey and excluding not to speak in a loud, carrying voice for everyone to hear when having a conversation not relevant to anyone else in the room.

I don't know why I care except that I know that everywhere German DH has worked in Germany the common language has been English but lots of other languages have been spoken. Usually everyone can speak German to some level, but not necessarily the new recruits from Asian countries. They are communicating with people all over the world too, so on the phone in other languages.

As others say you lose fluency in a language if you don't use it, even your mother tongue, and it sounds as if in the OP's company there are clients on the phone from other countries, so they would be doing the business no favours by letting their skills slip.

I don't use my native language at work because there are no other speakers. I can work perfectly well in the local language but it's pretty lonely never speaking your mother tongue. It would be very patronising to tell people they couldn't discuss the photocopier jam or whatever in their native language just in case somebody sitting at a nearby desk ostensibly busy working felt left out.

[Argeles]

YADNBU

The language of the official should be English, except for where another language is required as part of the job requirements (such as speaking to a particular client).

I would find it unsettling, and rude to have colleagues speaking other languages around me. It would be different if it was a bilingual office, and all of the staff were able to converse in the same languages, but this clearly isn’t the situation.

I must admit that it does feel really strange to me when I speak my second language with other British people, and it’s easy to slip into English, but if I was working in another country, I wouldn’t be rude and have whole conversations in English in the workplace.

I am almost fluent in another language, and regularly watch tv channels in that particular language. If I am watching something in that language and someone visits or is staying with us, I always change the channel when they enter the sitting room, as I know that they do not understand that language.

I find many of my DH’s family very rude. They have all been born and raised in the UK, but speaking another language at home. When they visit our house, I fully expect them to speak English, but they frequently have full blown conversations in their language whilst I sit there feeling uncomfortable in my own home. I understand some of that language, and often get the gist of conversations, but that’s not the point. I have told my DH how rude their behaviour is, and he has had words with them, but they still occasionally do it.

Can you raise your case with your managers?