Should my colleague help or am I being racist?

[madamreign]

We have a new hire. She is very experienced and qualified, but she is from overseas and is struggling. English is not her first language and I'm in awe of anybody who can do a professional job in a second language. If we can get her over her problems (confidence, communication, ways of working etc) she'll be a really asset to the business.

I'm trying my best to listen, understand and help her settle in. Taking cues from her on how to deal with this- I want to her to succeed!

I have a colleague who was born in the UK but who's parents came from the same country that our new hire did. I know they speak the language.

Would it be wrong to request that my colleague to help the new hire?

I have to say I'm finding it a bit annoying @whyisitallsohard 's posts are getting deleted.

There's really nothing in this thread that's so offensive we shouldn't be able to handle it like grown ups (to that end my 'just grow up' was probably a bit strong).

Exactly. Expecting good manners sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
Threatening people with disciplinary action and dismissal for suggesting that a colleague from a certain cultural background might be able to help a new recruit from the same background is the opposite of reasonable and creates an atmosphere of fear.

But would it be inappropriate to ask, say, an Asian British Urdu speaker to help out a new colleague in the language arena, but ok to ask a white British Polish speaker as that wouldn't be racist?

As you said yourself presuming would be wrong, but IME you'd hardly need to ask since very many would do it anyway - simply because most people are nice

That's how I came to speak (admittedly limited) Urdu and Yoruba; I went on courses too, but much of it was through the very generous offers of employees who weren't even asked

Turning it round though, my very favourite was when hosting a group of Russians. I was really looking forward to hearing the spoken language and was so disappointed that even among themselves they used only English.
Their explanation: "We thought it would appear rude if in your company we used a language you don't know"

And that's what I meant about ordinary decent manners getting the job done

I’m not sure what you mean by this?

I definitely am not intending to shut down any discussion or opposing opinions. I agree with those who say that if OP did this it probably wouldn’t be good management, good for either party and a poor work decision. I think a lot depends on the context here, but it does sound like OP was possibly making some racist/ racially insensitive assumptions / judgements.

however, I think that particular poster is also jumping to many nuclear accusations / assumptions/
judgements that don’t reflect the reality of most of the discussion here.

I also don’t agree at all that white fragility is a racist term, and am surprised (/disturbed!) that mumsnet would take that stance. The term was however totally misdirected in the context it was used.

Not our decisions to make, @RamsesTheChub, but perhaps deletions could be avoided if sweeping, insulting generalisations were too - especially when they concern an entire race or even just an entire forum of people

@Puzzledandpissedoff

Oh I agree but I'd rather be able to say "that's an unacceptable / insulting thing to say" than a post be deleted.

I'd rather be able to say "that's an unacceptable / insulting thing to say" than a post be deleted

On the whole so would I, @RamsesTheChub, but there seems little point in discussion when absolutely any dissent - no matter how politely phrased - brings another tsunami of generalised and insulting smears

Totally agree! When I was teaching we had a couple of children start who were from China and spoke no English but their parents didn't want them to have any language support or, in their words, They'll never learn English! Within a month they were getting along fine and when they left 18 months because their father's contract had ended they were almost fluent. I honestly think that language support can have a negative effect.

If it’s your job to help this colleague succeed, and if you know the British language speaker really well, you can ask them kindly (“I hope you don’t mind, I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but I’d love to ask you for some help”.) If it’s not your job, send it up to your manager. And if you don’t know the language speaker well, don’t ask. You risk being perceived as a busybody and also, it could come off as patronising. The colleague has been hired, if their English was so bad, surely they wouldn’t have been hired? They might think you are a troublemaker.

any dissent - no matter how politely phrased - brings another tsunami of generalised and insulting smears

Yes, it’s such a debate-terminating tactic.
I mean, one could disagree with the OP and several people have done so in a reasonable manner, but to call her and everyone who supports her ‘racist’ is unjustified and completely over the top.
Worse, it renders the term itself somehow pointless if one starts trowing it at anyone one disagrees with.

To be fair, in her first post it sounds like OP is the new recruit’s manager/ in charge of her:

If we can get her over her problems (confidence, communication, ways of working etc) she'll be a really asset to the business.

I'm trying my best to listen, understand and help her settle in. Taking cues from her on how to deal with this- I want to her to succeed!

Why would a random colleague try their best to listen, understand and help her settle in without being asked to do so?

@inamarina then she should have been involved in the hiring process, I would have thought

Well, maybe she was? She speaks quite highly of the new recruit’s professional skills, so it doesn’t seem like she thought it was a bad idea to hire her.
I think it’s not even clear whether it’s mostly the language that’s the issue or rather possible cultural differences.
OP mentions confidence, communication and ways of working. Maybe the language skills are sufficient, and the lack of confidence only became apparent now?

Not necessarily, plenty of organisations recruit centrally, especially with all these recruitment agencies around nowadays.

You can ask, but don’t presume.

Acting as a translator and mentor can be a job in itself, in addition to the job she’s actually there to do.