Speaking a foreign language at work

[flip]

Originally Posted by sadora

I speak Spanish and at work, with other Spanish speaking co workers we'll speak our language. For one, it's easier as some of them don't speak English too well. Second, we never use it to talk badly about anyone. What bothers me is most people's paranoia. What makes most people think that they're important enough for others to be talking about them at every possible chance?

Just a hypothetical, how would you feel about a reversal of the situation. Just say, that you were in a different country, trying to learn the language, and you happened to have other Canadian co-workers. Would you strictly speak the other language when at the work place or you switch back to English with your Canadian co-workers when ever possible? and please, be honest here.

How is your boss ever supposed to know you are talking about work and being productive or just shooting the and wasting time?

[sadora]

Originally Posted by flip

How is your boss ever supposed to know you are talking about work and being productive or just shooting the and wasting time?

Because we're actually working at the same time, not just standing around doing nothing.

[Traditional_Ale]

This thread reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld. Funny, because I hated the show, and only ever saw two episodes. It was hilarious when George's dad laid into the Asian girls.

[Russic]

I would find it a tad disrespectful if it was during work hours (break not included). I would have little problem with it if it was during what would be considered "free time" like a break or lunch.

I try to think of what I would do if I was living in a foreign country working with fellow Canadians. I would speak english, but not with non-english speakers around and certainly not during the hours of business. One of my biggest pet-peeves is people who whisper in a group to a single individual, and I kind of feel this is the same sort of thing.

[OilersBaby]

we have quite a few spanish speakers (we live in the bay area, lots of mexicans) and they always converse in spanish......sometimes i feel left out!

[Locke]

I see it as impolite at best.

So in the workplace I dont think its really acceptable in any situation aside from on the worker's own time like breaks or lunch.

The people who are the dumbest about this have to be the French. I've had people from Quebec sitting in my office while we're discussing some details and I'd ask them a question and they'd break into a private conversation amongst each other.

Ordinarily, if you get people to whom English is a second language, its simply efficient for them to converse in their native language to determine an answer.

But when I fluently speak and clearly understand french and I'm hearing them say things to each other like:

-I dont want to tell him about...
-We can tell him whatever we want because he wont know.
-Dont tell him about that job I had contracting for cash...
-Whats a good answer for us...

Thats when I kick them out of my office.

Come on people. This is Canada, you're going to run into people who speak French.

[Kipper is King]

Chatting occasionally in one's natuive tounge is alright in my opinion at work. But using it almost exclusivly and being reluctant to use English, then that can make things difficult.

It's not morally wrong or anything, but good communication is essential in a workplace.

[CaptainCrunch]

I use em as windtalkers and assign them to my corporate espionage division.

Most of them are unwilling to use the cyanide pills that I issue them though, and they break like glass under interrogation.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Locke

I see it as impolite at best.

So in the workplace I dont think its really acceptable in any situation aside from on the worker's own time like breaks or lunch.

The people who are the dumbest about this have to be the French. I've had people from Quebec sitting in my office while we're discussing some details and I'd ask them a question and they'd break into a private conversation amongst each other.

Ordinarily, if you get people to whom English is a second language, its simply efficient for them to converse in their native language to determine an answer.

But when I fluently speak and clearly understand french and I'm hearing them say things to each other like:

-I dont want to tell him about...
-We can tell him whatever we want because he wont know.
-Dont tell him about that job I had contracting for cash...
-Whats a good answer for us...

Thats when I kick them out of my office.

Come on people. This is Canada, you're going to run into people who speak French.

I hope you kicked them out in French!

Incidentally, that reminds me of hockey how you'd get certain lines of nationalities speaking to each other in different languages so the other team wouldn't understand. I remember some friends were in some hockey intramural team and they were asian. The other team was french canadian and they would speak french to each other on the ice and bench to discuss their tactics or what they would do on their next play but the asian guys kept playing matching what they were doing because unbeknowst to them, they all went to french immersion hahaa!!!

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

A majority of our structural group is Chinese, and they discuss jobs with each other at length in Mandarin. Frankly if it comes between building a soundly designed bridge or speaking english, I'll take the soundly designed bridge any day... so long as they can explain it to me in English