To say something about language spoken at work

[Babbleoff]

Im in an english speaking country. I have started working in an office where the majority of other employees are from another country. They speak their own language all of the time. I mean, ALL of the time!! Whether its office banter or actual work issues, all in their language.

I am very experienced, have been employed for my specialist skills and am relatively senior, altho its a small company with a fairly flat structure.

I am feeling very excluded and struggling to fit in due to the fact that i dont speak the other language. I find it rude that in a small and close working environment no consideration is given to english speakers. The other couple of english speakers are much more junior than me and i don't think they'd say anything.

I make an effort to talk to people. On occasions a conversation i have started gets picked up by someone else and they take over and continue in their language. At lunch they speak their language even if im sitting with them.

AIBU to raise this with my boss? I feel like a dick suggesting people dont speak their own language, but ive been upset almost to the point of tears about this. I can go all day without being included in any conversations unless i start them myself. I feel so stupid even about that because ive been working for yrs and have very thick skin (bit of a cutthroat industry).

i should also point out that speaking their language is not necessary for the job and was not a requirement or mentioned during hiring process.

Indeed. Most of our children have speech and CIs so all staff are confident in SSE and learn topic signs diligently. Some pupils require no sign at all. It's when it's actual BSL they are less confident, using the different syntax etc. and vocabulary that they may not use in the classroom setting. We do have plenty of Level 6 BSL signers for those who require it.

We just felt it was important to be inclusive to our new colleague and use the common language so one person wasn't left out. OP's workplace aren't doing her the same courtesy.

Personally, I'd see it as an opportunity. I once learned a language that way. It was an easy way to learn and good things have come from it. But each to their own.

But maybe she would have no use for the language anywhere else?

Learning a new language is not easy. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to just because her colleagues are rude.

@User48321 she's not a student on a work placement, she will have targets and objectives and career ambitions. You know, all those things that take up 100% of your working hours even when you don't have the extra barrier of most of the information being in a language you don't understand. It's also highly likely that a passing familiarity with the language is not sufficient to convey the level of nuance and precision needed to do her job so even if she were to embrace the ridiculous suggestions to learn, what does she do for the next 5 years while she gets to that stage? Just do a shit job and chalk it up to experience?

Treating it as "a great opportunity to learn" is like suggesting that she use her working hours to learn crochet because all the ladies in the office are amazing at it and make beautiful baby clothes in their lunch hours.

There are at least 10 different languages spoken in my small office in London. If I hear a conversation in a different language I tune it out and assume it doesn't concern me. Same on rare occasions I speak to my mother on the phone, I speak her native language, it wouldn't occur to me that anyone would feel offended or excluded (none of my colleagues speak this particular language).

OP's situation is entirely different though, it's impacting her career and happiness there and it should definitely be stopped.

I understand how frustrating that is. I have the opposite. I am British in a different country. Working in a British overseas school.

They mostly speak in English in the staffroom but they also speak in their own language understandably when chatting to each other.

I. Can speak their language but I find it much easy to speak in English so I'm grateful of teh conversation in English.

That's all they are doing. They are chatting (humour particularly is difficult in a second language)

They try to include me though and switch to English when I am there which is very kind (and unnecessary!)

You should speak to HR about this as you are being excluded they should have a common language policy

Definitely say something, you shouldn’t feel excluded at work and given it’s an English speaking country it’s definitely fine to do so.

'Ive lived and worked overseas myself. Ive worked in multinational environments my whole career (nature of my industry). '

When you were oversees were you asked to speak the language of the country you were in?
Of course you shouldn't be isolated, but the point of ppl suggesting you adapt to the situation is because that's what non-English speakers have to do all the time - learn English. Any international office, anywhere in the world.

But suggesting for you to learn a new language to fit in with the majority of the team is an offensive suggestion?

Just needs to be acknowledged that it's a privileged mindset to walk in and expect to change the status quo rather than quietly fit in or move on.

What is "woke" in this context?

Of course you shouldn't be isolated, but the point of ppl suggesting you adapt to the situation is because that's what non-English speakers have to do all the time - learn English. Any international office, anywhere in the world.

What do you mean by an 'international office'? If you're talking about the office of a company which does business in many countries then yes, English will often be the working language and anyone who chooses to work there will do so in the knowledge that they need to be prepared to speak English while at work.

But the poster doesn't seem to be in an 'international office'. She's working in an office in an English speaking country where the majority of staff refuse to speak English. Why should she learn their language? Aside from the fact that it would take years of committed study to reach a level whee she'd be able to interact competently with native speakers, by which time she or they will likely have moved on.

Yes, but that level of the target language would be as much use to the OP in her workplace as a sticking plaster would be to a heart surgeon.

When you were oversees were you asked to speak the language of the country you were in?

Yes i was asked to speak the language and i did. I also enjoyed respite speaking english with other native speakers but we did that outside of work. A couple of the team asked me to speak english with them as they wanted to improve but we only did that in 1:1 situations.

To the posters who continue to suggest i could learn the language, i do already know how to greet and make brief exchanges in this language. However im in a specific field which uses technical jargon a lot. English is the universal language/terminology across jurisdictions. Learning how to make small talk is going to do fuck all to help my cause.

PP worked for an English speaking company. Had the natives found it ‘hilarious’ to learn English, they wouldn’t be working there.

Hello or how are you may not be much, and its not meant to do any thing other then being nice. I find ppl open up, and either speak my English a bit or say they find it too difficult.

I hope your boss sorts this out. Can you learn how to say ‘can we speak English now please’?

What is their language then ??

I speak multiple languages, but I would feel a bit silly approaching people with “Hello! How are you?” in their language because they couldn’t be bothered to include me by speaking a common language in a work environment.

I know that learning the basics is often appreciated, but in the situation described by OP her coworkers are being inconsiderate.

The difference is that people who work in the offices of an international company will know before applying that the language of work is English and the job will require them to use written a d spoken English. No different to someone knowing in advance that they must have a specific technical skill to do a job. It's the applicant's choice learn English and go for the job, or go to work for a local company where they can do all their work in their native language.

OP was not told in advance that she would need to speak (eg) Dutch to do her job. If she had been, she'd have looked elsewhere. Now she arrives and can't do her job properly without speaking Dutch. And yes, getting to know your team properly and participating in informal discussions is very much necessary to do a job properly, not to mention equipping you to advance your career.

Surely you can see the difference?

The irony seems to have passed you by too, @inamarina

What irony?

PP worked in an English speaking company, I assume English skills were a requirement to work there.
OP joined a company where it wasn’t a requirement to speak the language her coworkers speak.
Don’t you see the difference?

It's not irony.

Native English speakers are very lucky that English is the commonest most lingua franca of international organisations.

This makes it less effort for us to work in international companies than it is for those who have had to learn English. We can travel the world and work in all sorts of places without having business level language skills.

Locals in those places aren't speaking English for our benefit, they are doing it for the job.

@ChocChipHandbag absolutely.
I'm just saying that being a native English speaker and especially in an English speaking country already makes life much easier, taking into account the global economic reality.
Non-English speakers are often expected by default to just adapt and fit in with what's already established in the workspace. They'd lack confidence to demand anything else, even if it's in the policies/ their own country.
It's really not an even playing field, and I know that's not an easy thing to agree with.

But these aren't people working in an office in their own country. They are people who chose to move to an English speaking country and work in an environment where it would be expected to speak English. It would be the same if they'd chosen to go to live in, say, Germany, and refused to speak German at work.

@IcedPurple it's not an easy choice.
And it's not their fault they weren't born here to begin with.

I used to work as a trainer and there was one person in our staff room who spoke another language. At the break about six or seven others from his country working there would come and socialise in our room in their language with him. I asked them to stop, but they just ignored me.