I was told I can’t speak English

[Yoloohno]

And no one can understand me while I wax at work.

I speak clearly and use correct English phrasing and terms.

is it discriminatory?

And no one can understand me while I was at work.

Doesn't correspond to I speak clearly and use correct English phrasing and terms.

I think it takes a bit of working out what you are trying to post Op.

Doesn't mean it isn't English of course, but I wouldn't call it clear!

'wax' was clearly a typo for 'was' and pp abusing the Op for this are being dicks.

I disagree. The OP posted and didn’t bother to clarify. That’s the problem.

True

And even the people claiming the OP was completely clear are getting mixed up about the waxing thing, talking about clients when OP hasn’t mentioned clients at all - she could work on a production line in a factory or be an astronaut for all we know.

If people genuinely can’t understand you, that’s not discriminatory. That’s just a hard fact.

At my former work some of the German customers complained to my manager they couldn't understand my German at all and I should be fired. He said that then it was kind of weird that they had been able to reply correctly to my questions. I had called them to ask them to pay an overdue invoice.
My German coworkers funnily never had any problems understanding me.

I honestly can't work out what she means - what is the typo and is she a beautician or not? I am not being a twat I really don't know

Well, if she lives somewhere where English is not the first language, it’s not surprising if nobody understands her 😂. They were probably asking her to stop waxing her legs (hopefully - any other body part would be even worse) at work, too - very antisocial and not appropriate on work time. She will soon be waning at work.

I assume when you were interviewed and hired your employer decided that your knowledge of the language was good enough to perform your duties? so what has changed?

You have not given us enough details in your post unfortunately. Unless we know what job you do, who made the comment (manager, client, colleague?) and the context, it is hard to give any relevant feedback.

Yes, it could be discriminatory for example if you are singled out and criticised unfairly by colleagues/manager simply because you are someone who does not have English as a first language.

Unless you post more details people won't be able to help.

Where in earth did you get that whole concept from?

Plenty of people with English as a second language speak good English. If the OP isn't a native English speaker her English in this thread is good. It's better than my attempt at a second language.

Why have you decided she's waxing her own legs...?

Is this;

a. An OP who came to live here from a different country who has been subjected to racism because they speak with an accent from their country of origin (however slight)?

b. An OP as above (or who has been here for years/since childhood/birth) who has been subjected to racism because somebody has assumed they will be speaking with an accent from another country/a home language when they don't or, if they do, it will be only slightly different to the local accent - or more like RP?

c. An OP who, irrespective of ethnicity or place of origin, speaks in local dialect/has a strong local accent that somebody finds unintelligible?

d. An OP who is neither of the first two categories, but speaks really quickly?

e. An OP whose speech doesn't always follow official rules of 'proper' English in terms of grammar, tense or syntax (eg, 'I ain't got no...')?

f. An OP who was speaking about very technical matters they have specialist knowledge about or using Corporate Speak to somebody who hasn't ever encountered them (or thinks they're bollocks in the case of the latter) who was answered with a 'Could you try speaking in English, please?'

g. I have a stammer; as a child, I would speak very quickly when not tripping over the words. The phrase I thought of when I read the OP was 'For Heaven's sake, SPEAK ENGLISH, CHILD' because it was what was barked at me every day, along with 'STOP GABBLING, this is you OODAGOOGOGOOOGOOBOOABOOLA...'.

If it's anything other than f., we can safely say that the person who spoke to the OP was being a complete dickhead (as Corporate Speak, like Art Speak, are definitely Not English even when using ostensibly English words).

But for ease of communication online where posters might not be able to decode the meaning of a post, it might help to know which category of a - g she falls under.

Why have you decided she's waxing her own legs...?

Presumably because she said "while I wax at work"? But it looks as if that was a typo.

“I weren’t” - spoken like a true clay head. I live near Stoke and I can understand the accent but you have your own unique grammar.

The way English is spoken varies according to age, area, regional accents, different words etc. So I don't think it's necessarily racist.

Depends on the job I guess. I’d have thought for instance if you were a doctor or nurse and people couldn’t understand you it could potentially be dangerous. I’ve worked with nurses I couldn’t understand.

Well, this is fun.

I would say that there are safety aspects to being a beautician/waxer if that's what you are and that communication skills are important.
It's not discriminatory if you need to communicate with your client and they can't understand you, though it is important.
Loads of jobs have "ability to communicate well in English" as a prerequisite.

Perhaps the buck stops with yourself? Maybe you need to broaden your horizons a bit more... not everyone you meet will have the same accent as yourself.

Lots of Indian surgeons in hospitals and lots of other nationalies of medical staff. NHS happily employed them and rightly so. Why should NHS carer for your shallow ignorant self? 🤔

My husband has lots of young relatives who live in and around Manchester. When they get together they speak very fast . The Mancunian accent and the speed mean that I often have no idea what they are talking about . We live in rural Herefordshire. I was brought up here. My husband has no idea what people with broad accents are saying. He goes by facial expressions. If they are smiling whilst telling him something he says "Oh thats great, brilliant" periodically. If they look sad he makes appropriate sad face comments.

It was clear to me.

Bless… I was laughing at all the possible interpretations that could be made from such a dearth of information. Of course the OP wasn’t clear - she didn’t say enough to make it clear where she lives, who said they couldn’t understand her and in what work context.

Not clear to me

If people can’t understand you at work - then no it’s not discriminatory it’s just common sense.

@Walkaround sorry it's hard to interpret sarcasm on here when there are so many people who would quite genuinely write a post like yours!

I have a friend in the NHS who suffered a life changing injury because the nurse she was paired with didn't speak good enough English

I had to change /soften my accent to be understood- it was my job to change to a more conventional sound rather than expect the whole world to revolve around me

If someone is complaining , at least listen , ask others around you