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Silly rule. If they want to converse in Spanish with each other, then why should i care so long as they're using English when official business is being conducted?
Unless, of course, the customer/client with whom they are doing that official business is more comfortable communicating in another language. About fifteen years ago, when I was working as a real estate agent, I had a client who, though she could speak and understand English, when it came time for her to sign the documents asked for them to be translated to French. I had to call the title company and see if that were possible. It was. They sent me the entire sheaf of documents in French, with instructions that, while the client could examine them in that language, the official documents for her signature had to be in English. The lady spoke and understood English verbally, but simply was more comfortable in reading French.
Same here. They use foul and sexist language, and racist slurs -- very often and they get away with it.
It's very rude and it's meant to be rude to customers when all the employees decide to speak Spanish and it's also very rude to the few employess who are English speaking - and it's meant to be.
The more important question might be - why are we bringing in so many foreigners to work good jobs when Americans are out of work?
Exactly. There should be a total or near-total moratorium on immigration to the US while our unemployment rate is so high. It's a slap in the face to every unemployed American to continue issuing H1-B visas.
Gald Sears has the guts to tell these people to speak english!!! Sears stock just went up in my opinion!! I live in Missouri, near middle of an ENGLISH speaking country, yet, why the hell should I have to press 1 to get a customer service rep that speaks english? Today I was in a store, and there was this lady that had to have a child tell the cashier what she wanted and ask how much something was. Woman behind me in lie shouts out, if your a** won't speak english, get the hell out of my country!! I like that woman!
How rude! Of BOTH of you. For one thing, you don't know if that woman lives in this country or is a visitor from another country. I don't speak French, but I'm pretty sure if I was visiting Paris, neither the store clerks nor any other person in the store would tell me to leave the country. And I surely wouldn't behave that way myself in this country.
I speak 3 languages. I live in a free country and will speak any of them as I see fit. Others are free to be upset by whichever language i may speak at any one time and thats ok thats their perogative. I will not, however, allow them to curtail my freedom to speak whichever language i choose whenever I choose
Good for Sears! I think I will go buy a new creeper for my shop and thank them for standing up for America.
It's funny how some of you want to legitimize multilingual ethnicities. When the first "legal" immigrants came to the states few of them spoke English. They learned the language and became proud American's who helped this country become great.
Today's Tower of babble mentality hurts America. Those of you who think anything goes will be regretting it someday. You must be very proud of your efforts to destroy what our forefathers built.
How does being multilingual hurt America? There are a lot of powerful countries that are multilingual. If anything, multilingualism helps, especially with international relations.
If you can't speak the language then how would you know? Do you think by simply restricting one's ability to speak another language it would stop someone from insulting another co-worker?
Exactly. I've witnessed monolingual workers making perfect use of their ability to whisper, come up with code, and use post-it notes to do the same thing that multilingual workers use foreign languages to do. It's about a person's attitude, not about the languages they speak. I am the only person that speaks and understands all the languages spoken within our office, and most of them I share in common with one other person but no one else. I could easily use each language secretively but I don't because I actually like the place I work at and respect the people I work with. Again, it has nothing to do with what languages you speak. It has everything to do with the worker's attitude. If a worker hates their work or their boss or their colleagues, they'll find a way to express their resentment.
But, again, this particular trainer simply asked that those within the class speak English while in the class so that she could understand when they might be having a problem with what she was trying to teach. To me, that is where Sears made a mistake - IMO, they should have a bi-lingual or multi-lingual instructor for such training sessions. Especially in such an area as this, where customers and employees alike speak different languages.
I think that's totally reasonable. Speaking a foreign language in a class where you know the instructor doesn't speak it is rude. And I agree, Sears would be wise to hire a multilingual instructor to train multilingual salespeople.
Last edited by nimchimpsky; 03-06-2011 at 08:43 AM..
Maybe they can tell the Nail Salons the same thing.
That's what I was about to say. I pretty much only go to nail salons where people speak English because I am POSITIVE Asian women in nail salons badmouth customers in their language. Especially considering some of the racism I know of all throughout Asia.
We don't have a language. There are multiple languages spoken here. There is a dominant language, but no OFFICIAL and no regulated language.
Next.
Oh please. What language are our founding documents written in? What is the language of govt? Are they speaking spanish on the floor of the House of Rep?
]Exactly. I've witnessed monolingual workers making perfect use of their ability to whisper, come up with code, and use post-it notes to do the same thing that multilingual workers use foreign languages to do. [/b]It's about a person's attitude, not about the languages they speak. I am the only person that speaks and understands all the languages spoken within our office, and most of them I share in common with one other person but no one else. I could easily use each language secretively but I don't because I actually like the place I work at and respect the people I work with. Again, it has nothing to do with what languages you speak. It has everything to do with the worker's attitude. If a worker hates their work or their boss or their colleagues, they'll find a way to express their resentment.
This is entirely true. And what about texting in front of people? Have you ever been in a situation where people are texting about you...in front of you? If someone wants to gossip to others about you, they will find a way to do so. Speaking in another language is simply one way of doing it. That being said, as a spanish speaker myself, I have reported inappropriate things said in front of me. Speaking spanish does not mean that those words "don't count" in daily discourse or that you can insult people with impunity. Well, at least not when I'm around!
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