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"Are you prejudiced?" asks StapMyVitals. Have you been a victim of prejudice? Are you a columnist for a popular daily newspaper? Don't bang on about how you never judge people on first impressions - no-one will believe you.
( , Thu 1 Apr 2010, 12:53)
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...then you should be able to speak the native language of the country you're working in.
Whether it's a call centre, reception desk or whatever, if you're working in England, you should be able to speak English. That's just good sense - what use is a doctor who can't make you understand what you need to do with your medication or why you're feeling ill? Or a phone monkey who doesn't understand you when you want to query a credit card bill? I even got served in Subway once by a guy who didn't understand me when I ordered my sandwich O_o
The number of people who think I'm being racist when I expound this opinion is astounding... :/
( , Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:06, 55 replies)
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... or when they come over from 'wherever' (usually Poland) and don't bother to learn english. Not racist, but sick and tired of having to learn Polish because the lazy fuckers that work for me don't bother learning the language of where they are going to live... Twats.
( , Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:24, closed)
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I have no clue what they think in North Minnesota, or as we call it, Canada.
( , Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:36, closed)
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Based in the Philipines. It was only a matter of time before people on my desk started shouting "Oh herro!" every time they have to deal with them.
( , Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:39, closed)
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Perhaps not entirely worthy of you mockingly parroting Team America lines at them when they're trying to do their jobs.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:39, closed)
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Its not racists its just common sense that people should be able to speak and understand the language they're giving advice or service in.
had that problem before, when phoning tech support my dad got through to someone who's english was so poor they couldn't understand the question he was asking.
( , Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:45, closed)
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is when you have a college professor trying to teach you differential equations with such a strong accent that you can't understand a word he's saying.
Just because the university in Delhi gave him his degree and he's fucking brilliant at math doesn't mean that he's a good fit at a US university.
(Actually I liked Dr. Raychowdhury, but the first week was intensely frustrating.)
( , Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:47, closed)
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I wanted to listen to him and learn from him. The problem was that I could barely understand him for the first couple of weeks until I worked out his version of English.
Once we got past the language barrier I was okay with him, but it was a lot of work that should not have been necessary.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:07, closed)
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I can understand that a lecturer with a strong accent might require more work on behalf of the listeners but if he is excellent at Maths, a qualified, good and likable teacher then he sounds fit for a lectureship at a US university to me.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:42, closed)
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Take that you utter scoundrel.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:52, closed)
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Agreed on this one. It's one of those things though, that when you mention your frustration to those around you, that look of 'I can't believe you are saying this, it's kind of racist' No it's fucking not
I am with 3 (the shittest mobile provider ever) and many times, many many mnay times, I call with an issue, and it's after about 5 minutes that they have finally got my name correctly (it's David) or my postcode is normally the killer.
It's fucking irritating that you can't speak to someone and have the confidence they understand you, and more importantly, we understand them
( , Mon 5 Apr 2010, 23:28, closed)
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what I think you mean is that they should speak english to a high enough standard to answer complex queries, and have a relatively accent free voice for those who have difficulties understanding any accents different to their own.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:22, closed)
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Dear Southerners,
Please stay out of the North. You'll only embarrass yourselves.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:43, closed)
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( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:26, closed)
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sometimes cunts from england call me
for the stupidest things.. how can you not know how much money you have?
retards
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:37, closed)
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Wow i hope everyone that's commented here has impeccable Hindi/Polish/Spanish
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:39, closed)
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which has 23 official languages.
Learn them all, THEN complain.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:46, closed)
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The last thing I want to do is work in the EU. Just Scotland will do me fine, thanks.
( , Wed 7 Apr 2010, 10:27, closed)
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( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:15, closed)
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Unless your native language is cunt. Is it cunt? It's cunt, isn't it?
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:39, closed)
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( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:07, closed)
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Are you really?
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 9:26, closed)
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The problem isn't with race, it is with the individual person to whom you're talking ... therefore not racist.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 2:42, closed)
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considering they're also dealing with a completely different accent every time someone calls. Also, do you realise how much communication is non-verbal? Speaking to a stranger for the first time over the phone in a second language (or even with a different accent) is quite difficult.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:22, closed)
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Which has 4 official languanges including English its kind of hard to master all of them beyond the basics. That said fortunately English is fairly common globally. How many of those who've replied master a language before they visit a country, same principle should surely apply!
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 7:20, closed)
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Duh.
But if you want to LIVE and WORK there, then you should certainly speak the language to a reasonable degree.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:05, closed)
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would'nt the problem really be with the tosspot, profit is all managers of the greedy firms who hire em?
(I'm scottish, no one can understand me anyway)
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 10:42, closed)
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all the British ex-pats clogging up Portugal, Spain, Japan, etc., decide to get off their arses and learn Portuguese/Spanish/Japanese, etc.
Yes, I appreciate the frustration of dealing with people whose English is poor. I see many students who have an excellent understanding of physics, but their level of English is still trying to catch up with their mathematics. But I was far more embarrassed when I last went to Germany, and one of the people I was travelling with spent half an hour at Stansted telling us not to worry, because his German was pretty good, then the first thing he did upon arrival was march into a taxi office and ask for a taxi in English.
But he was just visiting. In that sense, at least he didn't display the arrogance of the ex-pat living in Portugal who told me, "Oh, you don't need to bother learning Portuguese, they all speak English over here."
I'm rambling now; it just seems kind of hypocritical to demand that anyone from abroad learns English when we ourselves have a pretty lousy track record for learning other countries' languages.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 12:16, closed)
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Personally, I wouldn't dream of living somewhere and not learning the language.
Also, just to clarify for some of the posters above:
It doesn't have to be perfect English, just understandable. I know that's pretty much impossible to quantify, but when no-one you're talking to can understand you, surely there's something wrong?
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 12:34, closed)
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But how frequently is their English so bad that they are completely unintelligible? Cases that are that bad, I'd have guessed, are few and far between. But that's my experience to date, yours may differ.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 12:44, closed)
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And in fact, only last week I was with a group of doctors at work and there was one who none of us could understand. Even the other doctors were nonplussed...
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 15:07, closed)
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I dealt with lots of hotels and their reception staff were notorious for it. I phoned one once, asked to speak to the head of engineering and got put through to a guest in a room :)
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 15:09, closed)
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People should be able to talk clearly in whatever language is being spoken in that country so as to be understood.
If I was going to work in Italy I would expect myself to be able to speak Italian and to speak it clearly.
( , Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:59, closed)
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