I bet you the OP would also get offended if people brought their flags to work. Due to the World Cup, a bunch of people have brought flags at the office. I visited HR today just for the fun of it (I enjoy seeing the ladies from time to time) and saw plenty of flags on their desks (Argentinian, Spanish, Greek, Columbian, Italian). Even my side of the office have a few flags. I overheard someone in the elevator having a problem with that. Get real!
I think it’s only rude if you were included in the conversation in the first place. If your two coworkers were just talking amongst themselves, that is fine.
I was once at a restaurant and a family of Filipinos was sitting beside us. A white guy was with them so I’m assuming he’s dating one of the women. They were talking in their own foreign language. The white guy was just sitting there looking off into space. That to me is rude. They should have all spoken English at that time.
I think that everyone in the conversation should understand the language being spoken. If one person doesn’t while 20 others do, I think English should be the language of choice. Otherwise, they can talk whatever they want.
In my small sub-team of 15, we have 15 different nationalities. Some individuals speak their native language with their buddies who sit nearby, i’ve even seen the polish chick talking to the cleaning staff in polish. Doesn’t bother me at all.
I agree with the sentiment that everyone in the conversation should understand what is happening, or at least have it explained to them after the fact in English.
100% these guys are part of a sleeper cell.
Isn’t the whole point of diversity to breed tolerance? If FT is indeed tolerant - and not just a normal (that is - extremely friendly) Canadian - wouldn’t it be exactly because he’s been exposed to multiple cultures during his formative years?
Being exposed to different cultures can make you more tolerant. However, you can’t say that because you are exposed to different cultures, that automatically means you are tolerant. I was referring to mk17, who denies being intolerant on the basis of going to a multicultural school, but makes a series of comments that reflect intolerance.
FFS, did a Yank start this thread?
I think they should all just wear God bless America jackets to appease him, Yee-Haw motherfuckers.
I’m not sure I’m conveying my point - I’m saying at the office, work related things should be discussed in English. Using a language that no one else on your team can understand is exclusion. If you’re chatting in the lunchroom I could care less, but if it affects what our team is trying to achieve, shouldn’t it be an open discussion? If it’s something we aren’t privy to, why not take it to the meeting room instead of purposefully excluding others?
I speak one of the oft quoted foreign languages mentioned here. Even if I understand what my coworkers are yammering about, I still think it’s professional and respectful to discuss the weather in english. That’s just me.
lol what a donkey
You didn’t convey your point. It sounded like you were irritated by some people were speaking another language while talking to each other in the workplace about a matter that does not nor should not involve you.
You did not say that they were speaking another language in a conversation you were legitimately expecting to be included in. Yes, that’s rude, unless one of the other speakers does not speak english sufficiently well to participate and the other needs to translate for him, and even in those cases, maintaining a balance of participation is usually an objective.
Not trying to be argumentive but I did say that (in bold). If you’re in a working area, I’d expect things being talked about are related to work? I don’t mind people having personal conversations as long as they’re in quiet voices.
I’ve just been irritated with some new officemates that are very loud and can’t choose the appropriate language (their english is near native) for the workplace. That probably spilled over into my posts.
I was imagining a working area as a large open space, like trading desks. If two guys have a conversation in a cubicle near you, that’s a working area, but that doesn’t mean you are entitled to be in the conversation - no matter what langauge it is. And if you’re not in the conversation, and it’s not done so loudly that you can’t get your work done, then the fact that the office is in the US is pretty irrelevant to what language they should use.
If someone comes up and says “here, mk17, you’ve been working with us on project X, what is your progress” and then they babble to each other in some other language when both of them speak english perfectly well, and only switch to English to get your input on something, then yes, that’s rude, unless one of the speakers just isn’t a good english speaker and needs the other to translate.
If your argument is “this is America, I should be able to eavesdrop and understand every word you say, no matter what you’re talking about and who you are talking with and whether it’s relevant to me, because this room has a US ZIP Code” then I disagree with you, but you might find some friends who do agree with you over at NSA.
Maybe I am being the timid immigrant here but I think they should make a point of speaking English in work context, i.e. around Murkins who might have something valuable to contribute if they overhear. Not necessarily in a break room discussing vacations.
Obviously, this applies inside US/Canada/UK. Not so sure about Indian work places, but I’d assume people speak English or Hindi as the Lingua Franca in order to not exclude others with a different language.
I draw the line at the accent. Though there is such a thing as American Accent Training, that is bending way too backwards to please. If you speak slowly and clearly but FFS not like you are speaking to a child, Murkins and furners can understand each other most of the time.
I find this exchange hilarious.
For 16 months I was consulting with Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems in Charlotte, NC: half the engineers there were American, and half Japanese. As a consultant in project risk management, I had to interview most of those engineers, with the help of a Japanese MNES employee: Yamazaki-san. Several times, when we were interviewing an Japanese engineer, Yamazaki-san would ask my permission to converse with the engineer in Japanese. Of course, I was more than happy to have them do so: the goal was to get the information needed; if they were better able to do that in Japanese than in English, so be it.
Mountain: thou art a molehill.
My office is open concept, I can pretty much see what everyone is doing at any point in time. There aren’t any cubicle walls unfortunately. It would help with the noise reduction. Also, located north of NSA.
Points 2 and 3 agreed.
By the way, there was sarcasm in my comment about the NSA, but it was meant to be funny, not snide. Hope you didn’t take it as anything other than a stab at humor, and please don’t if you did. (Sometimes those kinds of things don’t carry well over the net).
That reminds me of the guy that says he’s not racist because he has a black friend.
No worries, I got the joke.
and FT, you’re just over compensating 
Canada is multi-tolerant. It’s a long way from being utopia. And I do have two black friends, thank you very much.
This is a bit crazy but I’m conversational / fluent in another language but if I’m sitting around a table with other native English speakers, we’re going to speak English. I would not consider it rude if there is a group of people speaking their native tongue despite them being “fluent” in English. It could be considered rude if you were part of the conversation to begin with and then they changed to another language leaving you part of the circle without having a clue what is going on.
The Bieb.