Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am worried about personal conversations in the work place. Big difference. There is a level of professionalism that needs to be maintained.
Really! So, no one is supposed to ever have any kind of personal conversation, just because they are at work? Does that mean employees are not supposed to be or become friends? Most professional salespeople I've known are quite friendly, both with the customers and with each other. Friendliness usually involves at the least a little bit of personal information being given and received. And, if the business happens to be in an area (such as this particular store) where customers and workers alike speak other languages, are you really going to insist your sales personnel NOT speak those languages simply because you don't understand what they are saying?
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.
When I worked for the State of Az the Spanish speakers would hurl insults at English speakers and then laugh because they knew they were showing their contempt for their coworkers and getting away with it. In private, some of them would admit what was going on but the thugs intimidated not only their coworkers but their superiors. It isn't a matter of a private conversation but saying things that would get the rest of us fired if we talked about them in those terms.
Which is why, if a business or government office feels the need to have employees who speak other languages, then at least one or two of the supervisors (managers, assistant managers, etc.) should be bilingual or multilingual.
Employees at the VA are required to speak english to each other in the normal course of business. That doesn't mean they can't speak whatever other language to a customer if that is required to complete his business.
That doesn't mean just hispanics, there are many places in gthe country where other languages are the problem
so if you call your boss a *#*#*# , and he fires you, you can sue him- referencing the first amendment?
You have freedom of speech at work, in the fact that you can't be charged a crime for what you say, but the employer can fire you for not following their rules. If a business wants to remain decency by having the employees act professional instead of using spanish and messing around at the store, that is the businesses' right.
I was agreeing with you until I came to the bolded. Are you really saying that speaking Spanish in the workplace means not 'acting professional'? I might agree that deliberately using a language that your boss and/or co-workers don't understand might be considered unprofessional. But, if they are using that language because the customer or client doesn't understand English, I surely wouldn't consider that unprofessional. Would you?
The left doesn't understand this stuff. At most work places there are conduct rules that forbid you from insulting other work mates. By allowing people to speak foreign languages at will in the work place, gives them a free pass to break the rules and nobody knows they are doing it. That is one good reason for doing something like this. As far as the Sears thing goes, this is no big deal, they just wanted to communicate properly with them.
If Sears is having a training session in an area where most employees and customers are bilingual, would you agree that they should have an instructor who is also bilingual? That is the only thing I see as 'wrong' about the situation described in the article.
I shouldn't have to learn any other language other than English living in the United States of America. My ancestors founded this nation with the de facto language being English. Immigrants of the past understood this quite well - todays bunch......Not so much.
There shouldn't be personal conversations going on in the work place at all. If I am the manager of a department store and two Mexicans are talking in Spanish next to me, how am I supposed to know what they are talking about? They could be bad talking myself or other employees. I watched the Mexicans do that all the time growing up in school. Bad mouthing teachers and the few white kids in each class in Spanish because the teachers wouldn't know what they were saying.
Not speaking proper English would not be a problem, as I would most probably know what they were saying anyway.
Are you serious? Even my boss pulls me aside to have private conversations all the time. Sometimes something needs to be discussed that the whole workplace doesn't need to know about. In fact she will speak to me in French sometimes if we don't have the option of going somewhere private, cause she knows I'm the only other French speaker. It's not meant to be rude, but sometimes something is private, such as, discussing a raise or promotion.
To give an example an example of when using another language is rude, I do have a coworker that speaks Russian and I am the only other Russian speaker. Sometimes he does use the fact that only him and I know Russian to badmouth other colleagues and complain about his work in general. That is rude and in that case I try to cut off the conversation as soon as possible or at least shift it to a positive focus. I've also let my boss know that he seems to have grown bored of his work, which I think she's sensed all on her own anyway.
Of course badmouthing teachers or bosses and other students or coworkers is inappropriate, but that doesn't have to do with speaking another language. That's just rude in general. Badmouthing people is rude no matter what language you do it in. Speaking another language doesn't have to be rude, especially if the conversation being held really is private.
If someone is speaking spanish to a co-worker who speaks spanish what's the problem? Grow up people... If you are so worried about what is being said in another language, learn to speak it.
I'm a white Jewish girl with a very goyische look so I can "pass" in lots of circles. I can also speak Spanish and Latinos, when they see me, are (mistakenly) confident that I can't understand them.
They're wrong.
I find that when Latinos speak to each other in Spanish in a work environment (i.e. 2 employees of Company A speaking to each other in Spanish in full view/earshot of other employees/customers), it is usually because they are having a conversation that would be completely inappropriate in English. I've overheard them referring to customers using racial slurs, insulting them, insulting other coworkers, making homophobic/sexist remarks, etc. because they think nobody can understand what they're saying.
I report this sort of behavior sometimes...when it's egregious...but if I reported every inappropriate conversation in Spanish that I overhear in public around here, I would not have enough time to do all the other things I need to do.
I'm a white Jewish girl with a very goyische look so I can "pass" in lots of circles. I can also speak Spanish and Latinos, when they see me, are (mistakenly) confident that I can't understand them.
They're wrong.
I find that when Latinos speak to each other in Spanish in a work environment (i.e. 2 employees of Company A speaking to each other in Spanish in full view/earshot of other employees/customers), it is usually because they are having a conversation that would be completely inappropriate in English. I've overheard them referring to customers using racial slurs, insulting them, insulting other coworkers, making homophobic/sexist remarks, etc. because they think nobody can understand what they're saying.
I report this sort of behavior sometimes...when it's egregious...but if I reported every inappropriate conversation in Spanish that I overhear in public around here, I would not have enough time to do all the other things I need to do.
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?
This is just a clarification on your comments . Deaf people sign to each other in ASL ("American" sign language) not a foreign language. This I personally know as my wife of 47 yrs is a Deaf person .
That's true, it's not strictly a foreign language. I was deaf for 2 years and used ASL and I got my hearing back and am studying to become an interpreter now. I often think of it as a foreign language because it's a separate language from English, requires interpreters to translate to/from English, is a language that most people don't know, is offered as a foreign language in many schools, and belongs to a separate culture. So in a lot of ways, it's like a foreign language, even though it's not technically foreign.
For the purposes of this thread, I used it as an example because the dynamic of two ASL speakers in a room full of non-signers is very much like two Spanish speakers in a room full of English speakers. I can have an ASL conversation in most situations and be pretty confident no one will understand what I'm saying. I'm sure you can do the same. In fact, in most situations, people stare at us in fascination because it's so rare, which I'm sure you've experienced too. IMO, even though ASL is native to the U.S., the analogy still holds.
The original point I was trying to make is that when I use ASL in public, most people tend to watch and be fascinated and feel inspired and usually say something like "what a beautiful language!" or something even more stupid like "wow you must be fluent!" In any case, it's almost always a positive reaction. When I speak Russian in public, I often get asked what language I'm speaking followed by some comment about how hard it must be to learn. But when two Spanish speakers are in a room having their own conversation, many people's first reaction is "you could be badmouthing the manager!" or "you're in America--learn English!" I just find it interesting that in general, languages like ASL or Russian tend to get such positive reactions, but Spanish tends to get such negative reactions. I can't help but think there is at least a bit of xenophobia and racism fueling the negative reactions so many people have to Spanish.
Last edited by nimchimpsky; 03-06-2011 at 08:11 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
