people talking their 1st language at work.

[ghostspirit]

im not going to say anything although sometimes i want to. because i think its rude. there are people at work that can speak English well. but they talk in their 1st language. im sometimes the only one in the room who does not understand. and it makes me feel quite isolated.

I worked in a hotel chain which had a lot of staff from the "home" country of the chain. They were expressed forbidden from talking in their 1st language at work, because it was cliquey and bad for working relations.

They took the same view in other European countries that they had businesses in.

sorcha wtf are you talking about?
try going to Afghanistan and see how many people speak English. Are they Imperialist as well?

I used to work at a place where there were a lot of African staff, who often used to speak in their native language. Management sent a memo round to say that while a diverse workforce is welcomed, in order that all staff are treated equally, all workplace conversations needed to be in a language that everyone understands-ie English.

I can understand why they do, but IMO it's rude.

have you been to France? South America?
I've been all over the world, which is why I have strong feelings about Anglophones expecting everyone to speak English.

Regarding the post about Welsh at uniersity; our lecturers are Welsh and quite often they'll speak to those of us who do speak Welsh in the language. They are more proficient in Welsh than at English, and feel more comfortable speaking their first language, as do several of us who speak Welsh with them.

I get this all the time, OP. The trouble with working in a multi-cultural organisation like the NHS means that sometimes I am in the staff room with half a dozen Filipinos, who decide to have a conversation in their home tongue. You feel a complete twat and completely excluded. I have also been in a clinic with two Egyptian staff members, who for reasons best known to themselves, decided to talk about the patient in front of us in their own language. The patient and me just look incredulously at each other. The patient was as English as me. To join in the conversations with each group at work I would have to learn Egyptian, Filipino, Zulu, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Hindi, French, Iraqi and Serbian. I just don't have the time. So if everyone could stick to English, that would be great. Thanks.

OP you posted recently that you work part-time in a school - is it the teachers talking in a different language?

YANBU

It is rude but I do understand that people may well do it by accident or may be happy changing back to English if they realise it's upsetting someone

This happens at my work in the tea room with lots of different people, do I mind? I cant say that I do. In that I dont feel paranoid about it although I might if I were more junior.

Sometimes it doesnt work though, a friend of mine had to speak up when we had visiting members of staff from a different office. Their manager was giving them an absolute bollocking but didnt realise that my friend understood what was being said. It was awks.

Sorry I would say that I'd exclude situations where people were talking socially before you turned up and finished their conversation quickly...in the same way we all do socially

lol at cultural imperialism!! Eh?

English is not my mother toungue (although I am bilingual in that and my other language) but I think the OP is NBU. It is rude to speak your mother tongue when you are in an English speaking country and the majority of people speak English. I would not do it.

If I went to work in France I would learn French first and speak French in my work space...surely that is just common sense!

CatThief, your parents were wise.

OP, it depends on what the native language of the country the workplace is in is. If you're in, say, the Czech Republic, then they should be able to speak Czech around you and you should bust a gut to learn Czech. If you are in England, then they are being damn rude.

scorcha N have you been to France? South America?
I've been all over the world, which is why I have strong feelings about Anglophones expecting everyone to speak English

Totally different if tourists are visiting, I am happy to help in my crap school French if required. It is another thing is someone is working in an office in England. Surely they are required to speak English? I am not understanding what you are trying to say. Are you saying we should learn 100's of languages for all the various nationalities that move here to work?

Ah glorious diversity. It's all just so enriching until you actually have to live with its consequences.

Perhaps the foreigners do not realise that speaking in their own language while in this country, in front of those who do not speak their language, is considered to be rude here. I would tell them if I were in the Op's situation. How will they find out otherwise?

I completely agree that it is rude OP. I had this in an office I worked in. Everyone spoke completely fluent English but 2 people spoke in their own language to each other and kept laughing. It was very difficult not to feel paranoid they were talking about you.

Someone else made a complaint and they were both spoken to and told it was making other people feel uncomfortable. It was the fact they were in an open plan office and speaking and then laughing all the time and no-one else knew what they were talking about.

I live in a country where my native language isn't spoken. I speak the local language at my place of work, much to the chagrin of those fellow foreigners who cannot be arsed to learn the local language. So I sort of understand where Scorcha is coming from- there are PLENTY of people who think English should be spoken everywhere by everyone at all times! I loathe these people!

But it is bonkers and unworkable to expect anything but English to be the default language of a company in an Anglophone country- unless, for instance, it is a company made up exclusively of Russians or Mongolians or whoever.

Mildly yes they were. It was over 30 years ago now, but was absolutely the right thing to do.

It earned them a lot of goodwill from the locals, especially in the early days when our Spanish was pretty dire!

It depends on the circumstances OP. I work for an foreign owned company and I have colleagues of various nationalities - German, Dutch, Belgian, French, plus lots of other English speaking nationalities (Aussie, Canadian, South African.) Sometimes my colleagues speak to each other in their own languages - the Germans and the Dutch talk together, the Dutch and the Belgian talk together.

However, it's chit chat and something that I have no need to know about. I don't care what they're saying and I certainly don't think they're talking about me. In a work situation, everyone speaks English because the English of these people is amazing (the Belgians, for example, have almost no accent,) whereas we barely speak any other languages.

CatThief, that must have been very funny! I just wish there were more people like your family about. Some of my colleagues have lived here for a decade and are actually proud of not knowing a word of the local language. It does my head in!

Mildly it was hilarious, particularly when dm asked the ndn if she wanted us to eat her dog when they went on holiday. She meant feed.

Fortunately our little part of Spain was populated with some wonderfully warm people that loved how hard we tried and had a sense of humour.

Mrsruffalo, there are probably quite a few businesses in the UK where none of the employees have English as a first language. I've been to France many times, and whilst my French is inadequate an attempt to speak the language is universally welcomed.

Don't think you got me ina

Sorcha - Okay, you are on a wind up. Well done.

The work place is in england. there is another woman at work. who told me that they have been told before to talk english. this was at a time when one was being horrible to her so she was sounding of a bit.

someone asked about if it was the same people who were being nasty towards the end of the year. not really that person is one that talks english. sometimes it feels like the people who don't talk english sort of join in. but i think thats more to do with me. because i feel i have it coming from the english speaking person that likes to be nasty. and then i have the feeling of being isolated from the people who are not speaking english. although to be honest the woman who had been nasty towards the end of the year has not been to bad lately.

as i said part of me wants to bring it up. but i dont like situations that cause bad feelings or aguments... there can be a fall blown argument over a dish cloth. so makes me think can i really be arsed....