I have a firm belief that if your job involves talking to other people, be it on the phone or in person...
...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... :/
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:06, 55 replies)

Totally agree...
... 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.
(animal252 last activated his kitten hammer on, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:24, closed)

Then don't hire them.

( Wildheart Baby. Drunken Mess In A Good Way, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:18, closed)

Fairly simple solution, that.

( JessAction Give me all your expensive brandy and hubcaps., Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:19, closed)

Well, you have my vote.

( Richard Shitheels, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 9:27, closed)

Hear, hear. Then this isn't just an American phenomenon
I have no clue what they think in North Minnesota, or as we call it, Canada.
( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:36, closed)

I have to deal with a call centre on a daily basis
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.
( jim_bob can herd cats., Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:39, closed)

Surely it's not that bad if they just have a different accent to you.
Perhaps not entirely worthy of you mockingly parroting Team America lines at them when they're trying to do their jobs.
( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:39, closed)

agree
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.
(FootOfTim, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:45, closed)

"who's english was so poor..."
"racists"
etc
(TheColonel, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 8:24, closed)

Most frustrating of all
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.)
( Wanderer, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 22:47, closed)

God forbid that you should actually have to listen to a lecturer.

(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:41, closed)

I think you miss the point.
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.
( Wanderer, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:07, closed)

First couple of weeks?
Fucking hell. And you got to uni?
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:10, closed)

It's clearly not a very challenging degree.

( JessAction Give me all your expensive brandy and hubcaps., Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:19, closed)

It's not even a challenging university, being in the US.

(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:46, closed)

Isn't that just a bit lazy?
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.
( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:42, closed)

Math, TFD, math.
Not maths. Math.
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:46, closed)

I just couldn't bring myself to write it.
I apologise.
( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:47, closed)

Apologize, TFD.

(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:47, closed)

I don't care for that sort of talk Nucky and if you persist I'm going to have to become prejudiced against you and get so angry I'll jolly well post about it on an internet message board.
Take that you utter scoundrel.
( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:52, closed)

Do you know what, I will take it.
I WILL TAKE IT.
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:56, closed)

Oh do calm down.
You're rather unsightly when you're excited.
( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 2:02, closed)

Sums!!!
(Benzyl, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 3:56, closed)

Here here
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
(Eeevil You are losers, Mon 5 Apr 2010, 23:28, closed)

they can speak english, claiming they can't is racist
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.
( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:22, closed)

In which case:
Dear Southerners,
Please stay out of the North. You'll only embarrass yourselves.
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:43, closed)

Ay up, alreet pet, shall we go t'pub etc.
*runs for the border*
( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:49, closed)

I'm not being racist but I find everyone who doesn't speak English to the same standard as myself extremely annoying.

( WormuIus, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:26, closed)

i find everyone annoying
we should bomb a cuntry over this
(rigby happened on (and with added toothache), Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:39, closed)

i live/work in india
sometimes cunts from england call me
for the stupidest things.. how can you not know how much money you have?
retards
(rigby happened on (and with added toothache), Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:37, closed)

Wow i hope everyone that's commented here has impeccable Hindi/Polish/Spanish
(fych, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:39, closed)

But...
They're not trying to work in India/Poland/Spain.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:45, closed)

No, they're trying to work in the EU,
which has 23 official languages.

Learn them all, THEN complain.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:46, closed)

I'm not.
The last thing I want to do is work in the EU. Just Scotland will do me fine, thanks.
(davywavy, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 10:27, closed)

Yeah, damn those people in call centres based in india not having perfect easty to understand accents.

( Wildheart Baby. Drunken Mess In A Good Way, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:15, closed)

You're a fucking tool.

( Richard Shitheels, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 9:25, closed)

Why should they bother even talking to you when you call them things like 'phone monkey'?
Unless your native language is cunt. Is it cunt? It's cunt, isn't it?
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:39, closed)

to be fair, I work in a call centre and have oft referred to myself as phone monkey.

(King Baby Duck more than a ceiling, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:07, closed)

Yeah but your hairyness is that giveaway.

( Wildheart Baby. Drunken Mess In A Good Way, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:19, closed)

Are you being offended on behalf of other people who work in call centres?
Are you really?
( Richard Shitheels, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 9:26, closed)

Why not?
If you prick them do they not bleed?
( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 16:38, closed)

pssst,
that's because it IS racist.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:42, closed)

How?
The problem isn't with race, it is with the individual person to whom you're talking ... therefore not racist.
(Freakmandu, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 2:42, closed)

I'm not racist, I just hate everyone who's different.

( JessAction Give me all your expensive brandy and hubcaps., Tue 6 Apr 2010, 0:44, closed)

the phone is excusable
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.
(knackerz is skinning up, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 1:22, closed)

Working in Singapore

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!
(stuwads, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 7:20, closed)

You don't need to master a language to VISIT a country as a tourist
Duh.

But if you want to LIVE and WORK there, then you should certainly speak the language to a reasonable degree.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:05, closed)

With you, but...
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)
(shinypurplebit booked his tickets (yay) on, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 10:42, closed)

I'll agree with you when
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.
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 12:16, closed)

Couldn't agree more...
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?
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 12:34, closed)

Well that's fair enough
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.
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 12:44, closed)

Well, as mentioned above, I got served in Subway by a guy who didn't understand my order once...
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...
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 15:07, closed)

Also, when I worked in London it was almost a daily occurence
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 :)
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 15:09, closed)

I agree with this.
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.
( vix0r was not Matthew on, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:59, closed)

you filthy racist

( mictoboy shitting in your cunt since, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 16:37, closed)