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?

I also had to soften my accent as folks struggled to understand me. If it’s factual then it’s important to listen. It’s not discriminatory in this context.

Normally I'm quite good at understanding typos. I teach a foreign language and taught ESOL for a while, so I'm even quite good at understanding mistakes that learners make.

But your interpretations rely on twice adding/removing negations (can → can not / weren't → was). If you're correct, you can hardly be surprised that people get confused by someone repeatedly saying the EXACT OPPOSITE of what they meant.

Sorry, but that’s a pretty offensive response. If someone does not understand someone else, this is not automatically racism or the fault of the person who does not understand. You would not get away with claiming that if the complaint were use of complex medical terms without explanations; it would then be the failure of the doctor or nurse for not explaining things in ways a layman can understand. You wouldn’t get away with it if the patient had less good English than their doctor and the doctor spoke too fast or with a strong regional accent and, when asked to repeat it more slowly, told them they shouldn’t be coming for treatment in this country if they could not understand a native speaker speaking at a normal speed. There is a huge problem if a patient does not want to admit to not having understood a doctor or nurse for fear of being accused of being ignorant or racist, and it is not a patient’s duty to forgo medical care until they have sourced lessons in every possible English accent in the world. Sometimes it is necessary to address issues with comprehension, for safety’s sake, without being made to feel bad for not understanding.

I speak clearly and use correct English phrasing and terms

Do you have a strong accent? Some people (like me) really struggle with some accents, even if the speaker is speaking clearly and has good grammar. It doesn’t help that I have mild hearing loss and covid mask wearing takes it to a whole new level of struggle to make out what is being said. If people are finding it hard to understand you that sounds like a fact rather than people being discriminatory. But as others have said, without more context it’s hard to know.

it actually annoys me a bit when people cant understand accents, as it can be frustrating and time consuming when people have clearly never been around people that speak differently, or have different grammar styles or accents. Its worse though when they seemingly deliberatly try to make out that its harder to interpret than it actually is. Often people do this to deflect away from themselves, and try and shame the person for not speaking their second or third language as fluently and perfectly as most natives, when they cant even do accents, let alone languages.

I wouldn’t worry about it. I was on a company course once with delegates form our European sites. I don’t have a particular accent as have loved all over the uk and was born here.
french women delegate had a hissy fit about me leading one of the team activities because apparently she could not understand my English and I didn’t speak it properly - even though sh knew I was English. 🤦‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤣🤣🤣

Hangover this morning op

Interesting typo

I can relate. I had a German woman correct me once with such astonishing confidence too! because I wasn't pronouncing my 'a' (ah) like I was from the south of England. I said, I'm from Ireland, we don't do that, it's not wrong. She had such belief in herself that I was speaking inferior English. Then she pronounced ''cat'' as in miaow with an intrusive ah. (if that's what it's called). I just let her get on with it!

lol, loved all over the UK. Is that you Tom Jones

To be fair, considering your posts are hard to understand, they might have had a a point.

Some accents are incredibly hard to understand even if they are in spoken English. If good communication is something you need for your job, then you should probably listen to what has been said and try to become easier to understand.

It is not discrimination if it’s true.

It depends what job you are doing. I am a native English speaker from south east England. I also speak French, Italian and Spanish. I could make friends and get a job in those countries but not the job I do in Britain or have done in other English-speaking countries because my grasp of those languages is good but not good enough.

It's not just doctors or lawyers who have to be easily understood. If you are providing personal care in the NHS say, the patient or client has to be able to understand you and if they cannot they have to be able to raise those concerns without fearing being accused of ignorance or racism.

Wow, massive over reaction. The two I’m thinking of were actually white Caucasian but Italian so not sure racism comes into it. Not only were they heavily accented but they would take 5x as long as anyone else to communicate as they struggled for the word they wanted and when I spoke to them I’d have to reword stuff several times before they understood.

it wasn’t just me and they ended up getting put on supernumerary status until their English improved. They didn’t have any nursing terminology in English. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Not exactly safe especially in an emergency.

so take your offensive racism claims elsewhere. I’m actually friends with them now but it took them months to improve their English and yes someone had to have an awkward conversation with them early on.

Plus @Walkaround ive worked in the nhs for nearly 20 years with Indian colleagues, African colleagues, Chinese colleagues, staff from the Phillipines. Most of whom have an accent of varying heaviness and I’ve never had a problem. So yes I’m very aware not everyone will have an accent the same as mine. But if someone isn’t safe then they’re not safe.

Sorry @Walkaround it was @IfIhearmumagaintoday not you. I find the updated quotes thing so confusing. 😂

@QuebecBagnet bore off with that BS. I work within NHS and there's no way what your claiming is true. It was your claim in the first place. No non English speaking nurse would be allowed to nurse...there's exams you have to sit. Pull the other one..🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

NHS take things like this seriously. You can't go around speaking like this.

@Yoloohno are you waxing others or yourself at work? 😂

Or waxing lyrical?

I sometimes struggle with strong accents (like a strong Liverpool accent for example).
What makes you believe it is discrimination?

Oops just saw this - apologies.

No you bore off love. I don’t particularly care whether you believe me or not. Funnily enough that’s what we all said at work about the English test, that we thought they were supposed to have needed to pass one. We came to the conclusion it can’t be particularly difficult because the two I’m thinking of could not understand English well enough and struggled to be understood. Not sure why you’re so triggered hun. 😚

Before flinging around claims of discrimination, it's worth remembering the importance of context. There are situations - medicine's been mentioned but there are others - where clear communication really is vital, and glossing over this helps nobody

I used to recruit HCPs, and the sector and area involved a majority of candidates being from a particular demographic. Mostly their English was superb, but occasionally there'd be one whose accent was impenetrable, who had to be told they'd need to develop their English before any appointment would be possible

Needless to say they too often claimed discrimination, but there was never a single case where they were found to have grounds - not least because the successful candidate would almost invariably be from the same demographic

Several years in Italy and speaking only Italian with a strong accent soon wears you down. I feel your pain.

I'd like to see those criticising you go to work in another country and stick it out!!

If you have a strong accent you can do pronunciation exercises to reduce it but it depends where you are from. look on youtube there is lots of linguistic help there.

'flinging round claims of discrimination'?? as if discrimination, racism and xenophobia isnt an absolutely rampant issue in many places?