English only at work?

In one way I agree with you Krissy but then again,In America our language is English. Folks that move here might be best served learning the language of the country they move to. I took french from 3rd grade to 7th grade but that was just something at my school. It would be fantastic if we all learned other languages but it should not be a mandatory thing. If I moved to another country,I would learn that language.
Jeff(fuzzy30)

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I'm talking more about when we, as Americans, go to other countries. You would be surprised how many times I've been in Mexico and heard American tourists *****ing,"Doesn't ANYONE here speak English?"

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Si hoc non legere potes tu asinus es

Lol

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The heart is the same as heaven and earth
visit www.fuzzydragonmartialartssupplies.com

I've never been fluent in anything other than Engish but I have known enough Spanish and German at one point to get what I needed. I've also taken French and Chinese classes.

I also think that anyone moving to a new country should learn the language.

“	Originally Posted By: fuzzy30 "Folks that move here might be best served learning the language of the country they move to"	”

ahem:

http://www.indians.org/welker/americas.htm

I don't think it should be a problem to nominate a national language that is used in the workplace. Born in England, raised in Wales it was compulsory to learn Welsh when I went to school there (though sadly I forgot it, it's a lovely language).

Yet, in my experience, it was often used just to divide the Welsh from the English people. It was a veil behind which people could openly be rude about you.

I think language is often used as a weapon in this fashion. That's partly how Ebonics came into being, with African Americans appropriating language and making it unintelligible to WASPs.

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Cling to nothing, except your Lego...

I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask people to speak in a common language at work. This is not "Keeping anyone down", that is professional. Is it too much to ask that your employees speak English? What civil rights do these people think they are being stripped of?

Now at my work we have Spanish speaking people but no English only policy. It's no big deal not having that policy, but there was an incident of one of the Spanish speaking employees sexually harassing one of the other Spanish speaking employees here in Spanish so that nobody knew what he was saying to her. After a few months of this she eventually told me about it and the next time I heard him say something to her (speaking across the room so everyone could hear) that did not sound right, I immediately IMed her and asked her what he said to her. Well it certainly wasn't appropriate, so I walked over to him and told him that he is not to speak to her that way. He denied it very strongly, said that he didn't think of her as anything other than a daughter and acted as if he were insulted at my very thought of him doing anything of the sort (now when he said all of this, I still hadn't told him "which" way he was not supposed to talk to her). The guy was SO guilty and denied it so smugly that his brazen lies just made me angry. I was so mad I was shaking, standing over his desk and looking at him like "If you stand up, you're gonna have a bad day starting with me." It ended up with me leaning into his face flipping him the double bird and yelling "F*** you!" Then the girl and I went out to lunch. She thanked me for that a lot, then we came back he had already left and never came back.

What was funny was when the general manager asked her about the incident she was like "Do you ask your daughter how her sex has been lately and then tell her that you want her?". LOL, there was no doubt the guy was guilty as sin and nobody blamed me for the disturbance. All is well that ends well but I could see how the English only policy would have eliminated that problem right from the get-go.

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There are many paths at the base of the mountain but all who reach it's peak see the same moon.

I'm with Fuzzy on this one. I understand that if someone from America went to another country, it would serve them best to be able to speak the native tounge. But yet this is not expected in America? This is my problem with the whole language thing.

I see too many things like applications, driving manuals printed in Spanish. Seems like we are being invaded or something.

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It's all about the nitty gritty.......

“	Originally Posted By: Jubei I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask people to speak in a common language at work. This is not "Keeping anyone down", that is professional. Is it too much to ask that your employees speak English? What civil rights do these people think they are being stripped of? Now at my work we have Spanish speaking people but no English only policy. It's no big deal not having that policy, but there was an incident of one of the Spanish speaking employees sexually harassing one of the other Spanish speaking employees here in Spanish so that nobody knew what he was saying to her. After a few months of this she eventually told me about it and the next time I heard him say something to her (speaking across the room so everyone could hear) that did not sound right, I immediately IMed her and asked her what he said to her. Well it certainly wasn't appropriate, so I walked over to him and told him that he is not to speak to her that way. He denied it very strongly, said that he didn't think of her as anything other than a daughter and acted as if he were insulted at my very thought of him doing anything of the sort (now when he said all of this, I still hadn't told him "which" way he was not supposed to talk to her). The guy was SO guilty and denied it so smugly that his brazen lies just made me angry. I was so mad I was shaking, standing over his desk and looking at him like "If you stand up, you're gonna have a bad day starting with me." It ended up with me leaning into his face flipping him the double bird and yelling "F*** you!" Then the girl and I went out to lunch. She thanked me for that a lot, then we came back he had already left and never came back. What was funny was when the general manager asked her about the incident she was like "Do you ask your daughter how her sex has been lately and then tell her that you want her?". LOL, there was no doubt the guy was guilty as sin and nobody blamed me for the disturbance. All is well that ends well but I could see how the English only policy would have eliminated that problem right from the get-go.	”

Thank you someone other than I stayed on the subject.
I completely agree. A lot of women want to cry about sexual harassment when something as simple as an English only rule could have prevented it or at least stopped it from the start.

bump

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Wolfgang says:

I could think of a million better things to do in Japan for a month besides jumping off of picnic tables. - x893

i dont think america has a offical language

there's a huge increase over here in jobs here where English is the only language used at work...

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“	Question Authority. Question Society. Question Reality. Question Yourself. Question your conclusions, your judgments, your answers. Question this. If you question everything thoroughly enough, the truth will eventually hit you upside the head and you will know. But here’s a warning: It won’t be what you imagined. It won’t be even close.	”

all hail Martyr Fakka

How do folks feel about that?

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Wolfgang says:

I could think of a million better things to do in Japan for a month besides jumping off of picnic tables. - x893

if they pay enough no-one cares

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“	Question Authority. Question Society. Question Reality. Question Yourself. Question your conclusions, your judgments, your answers. Question this. If you question everything thoroughly enough, the truth will eventually hit you upside the head and you will know. But here’s a warning: It won’t be what you imagined. It won’t be even close.	”

all hail Martyr Fakka

“	Originally Posted By: pale rider i dont think america has a offical language	”

I think it's absolutely rediculous that we have to declare English as the official language. But if me must....

Speaking one language only in the workplace is simply an accountability factor for a company. As a manager, if I walk around the corner and see two of my employees standing around talking, I won't yell at them if they are talking about work or simply trying to solve a work related issue. But if they are just standing around talking about personal stuff, I as a boss woud like to reserve the right to tell them to get to work. Not to mention all of the "he said/she said" issues that could very well arise.

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There are many paths at the base of the mountain but all who reach it's peak see the same moon.

In Va where I am from they had no foreign language requirements to graduate high school, but my little sis who graduated about 3 years ago had to have like 2 years or so of another language. I wish now that I am older that I were more fluent in other languages.

Part of the problem is that in this country we are so politically correct it is ridiculous. I should never get papers from school in 3different languages, or go somewhere to eat and not be able to communicate to the servers. This is America and whether it is OFFICIAL or not American English is our national language. If we go to another country they don't cater to us when it comes to communication. It is up to us to learn and to get by. America has gotten to the point that there are places in this country where it is like another country and English is hardly spoken. I can understand the Native American languages (which many tribes have lost due to them being forbidden to speak their native tongue over the years) but to go certain places in America and people only speak a foreign language, well that is pushing it. It also damages the academic standards of certain cities and states as well. In Garden Grove Ca. where my nieces attended school before moving to Va. anything from school sent home was in English, Spanish and depending on the area either Vietnamese or Korean. My oldest niece was in advanced classes until she went to Va. When she enrolled in school there she was a little over a year behind. We should not be bending or lowering our standards based on culturally divers cities. It only hurts or children.

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Daniel W. "Gigagei Waya" McCullar, 4th Dan

Oooh, look the Korean stylist used Chinese
http://www.dragonslist.com/discussio...read-ever.html