Is Foreign Language Speaking Rude in Fort Lauderdale? (Miami: home, find a job)

[HotandHumid]

Since the majority of residents in the Fort Lauderdale area are English speaking, is it rude for someone who is able to speak English to carry on a conversation in another language with someone in the presence of people who obviously only know how to speak English?

[Jaciern62]

Absolutely, Yes, it's considered rude in the presence of "English only" speaking people . In fact, many employers forbid this in the work place and will penalize you for doing this..The only time its considered appropriate is to assist with translation. In private you can speak whatever you want..

[LifeIsGood01]

Originally Posted by HotandHumid

Since the majority of residents in the Fort Lauderdale area are English speaking, is it rude for someone who is able to speak English to carry on a conversation in another language with someone in the presence of people who obviously only know how to speak English?

No it's not rude to speak any language you want it's your right.

If you are at dinner and a party or 4 and two only speak that language it might seem rude or they will think you are talking about them. If you mean if you are at a table of two at a restaurant and others can hear you speaking a foreign language is that rude? no.

[ruski]

Originally Posted by Jaciern62

Absolutely, Yes, it's considered rude in the presence of "English only" speaking people . In fact, many employers forbid this in the work place and will penalize you for doing this..The only time its considered appropriate is to assist with translation. In private you can speak whatever you want..

For real? I don't think so.

[HotandHumid]

Originally Posted by so954

No it's not rude to speak any language you want it's your right.

If you are at dinner and a party or 4 and two only speak that language it might seem rude or they will think you are talking about them. If you mean if you are at a table of two at a restaurant and others can hear you speaking a foreign language is that rude? no.

I lived in Chicago for many years which has a much larger population of people from all over the world, yet If I stepped into an elevator there and two people were speaking in a foreign language, they switched over into English until I got off on the floor I was going to.

Also, when I went to several parties over the years in the Logan Square area of Chicago, which has a large Latin population, even though everyone at the party was speaking Spanish, when I was introduced to groups of people speaking Spanish by the host, everyone in the group I was introduced to switched over into English while I was conversing with people in the group.

I find that this is not often the situation in the Fort Lauderdale area that happens more times than I can count whereas someone in the group I'm conversing with will speak English while others in the group will go back to speaking another language once they've said a few words to me in perfect English.

This sort of thing seems exclusionary and I think it creates an atmosphere that people don't seem to realize can create rifts between people who come from different cultures to the point where many English speaking people doesn't want to live or be around people of another culture who don't want to speak or learn to speak English in their adopted country and that's why so many English speaking people begin to move away from areas of Fort Lauderdale when the new inhabitants of a neighborhood insulate themselves away from the majority of those in the community they moved into by speaking primarily in the language of the country they moved here from.

I don't meet many people in this area in this day and age who are prejudice against others because of their race or religion but I do hear the complaints of a lot of people who complain about no longer being comfortable living in an area where they are now being denied jobs because they don't speak the foreign language that a large number of new inhabitants to an area speak exclusively because those new inhabitants won't make an attempt to learn and use English in their public lives.

[HotandHumid]

Originally Posted by ruski

For real? I don't think so.

Would you want to regularly go to stores, restaurants, and the like in the Fort Lauderdale area to places where what you want could not be understood by the people who work there? Would you want to live in one of the Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods where the majority of your neighbors don't speak any English?

Don't you think you'd get a bit tired of trying to buy services, food, etc. from people who can't understand what you want and have to commute miles away from your home because you can't find a job in the area you live in because you don't speak the language of the new inhabitants that have moved into your neighborhood and become the majority there?

Do you think you'd like having to ask people in stores, restaurants, etc. if they speak English before you inquire something of them? It's a given for most people in the U.S. to go into stores, etc., and simply ask for what they want in English and be served but that's becoming more and more difficult in some areas of Fort Lauderdale, just as what happened in the Miami area.

I used to live in the Miami area and it was expected of me to speak Spanish in a large number of business establishments in order to get what I came in to buy and as I only spoke English, it became quite tiresome to constantly ask people who live in the U.S. if they spoke English and find out in many business establishments that no one did.

I moved to Miami because I enjoy being around different cultures and eating different foods at ethnic restaurants than what I grew up around but it became a huge daily irritation for me as I came to the realization that I couldn't go about getting my day to day needs fulfilled in that city located in the U.S. unless I spoke Spanish and that I was being denied jobs I had applied for with the reason given that they were only hiring people who were bi-lingual, even though the majority of the staff at the places I applied at also weren't bi-lingual because they only spoke Spanish.

[PDF]

Yes, I'd say so.

[UKWildcat1981]

The only foreign language I speak is Yiddish lol

[LifeIsGood01]

It's rude to be offended by whatever language people choose to speak around you, after all it's none of your business if they are not speaking to you.

[Papillons2]

For whatever reason, I've never been offended by people speaking foreign languages around me -- although I do believe that anyone who moves here and does not speak or read English should learn it, know it and live it. Maybe it's because I work in the communications field and put a lot of stock in the First Amendment. It just doesn't rank high on my list of things to get hot and bothered about.

I'm much more likely to be irritated by poor personal hygiene, folks who use their cellphones at inappropriate times, and inconsiderate smokers. And I'll save true scorn for those whose behaviors endanger others -- such as drivers who are overly aggressive, take the wheel intoxicated, or attempt to text and drive.