Offended

By Anonymous - 04/09/2009 04:31 - Canada

Today, a customer came in who only spoke Spanish. I speak Spanish rather well so I helped the customer. She ended up buying $2300 worth of stuff. I got written up because not speaking English apparently "has the potential be offensive to other customers if they are not able to understand you." FML
I agree, your life sucks 60 168
You deserved it 3 507

Same thing different taste

Top comments

Yeah, I get that a lot... And the stupid part is? I was hired BECAUSE I'm bilingual.

Well, your in Canada... They have many people who speak French. This one doesn't sound right to me.

Comments

It's only if you're talking to another coworker Who speaks the same language... And in front of other coworkers who Find it offensive. If it helps a customer, then by all means. Who ever wrote you up is a dipshit...

the_enigma1019 1

Truly, if a universal language were to ever be implied, it would be one totally separate from most other languages. Otherwise you would have one culture feeling empowered the universal language stemmed from them. While it would also overwrite all the unique inspirations for many words in most languages. Truly fyl. You should not be incriminated for being diverse and courteous. - the enigma

If you were in the USA then YDI, I am one that finds it highly offensive that in a country where English is the language of that country that people speak another language and others like yourself cater to them, they should learn the language of the country you are in or GTFO!

I know, right? How dare those foreigners come to our country on vacation, stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, and buy $2300 worth of crap from our stores? Can't you see they're destroying America? I mean, whenever we Americans visit another country, we spend hours upon hours studying the language of that country, ensuring we are 100% fluent before hopping on the plane! If you didn't catch the sarcasm, I attended a university where a very high percentage of students study abroad, and now work at another university where an even higher percentage of students study abroad. I know a lot of kids who have spent semesters in Europe and Asia. Not a single one of them bothered to learn the language. A couple were fluent beforehand, but not one picked up more than a few sentences while actually studying in the country. Not even a girl who was majoring in linguistics. The most common excuse is, "well, everyone there spoke English." Now I'm a patriotic American. (And yes, I realize this story takes place in Canada. Sue me.) But my grandmother, a Spanish immigrant, lived in America for 20 years without learning English fluently, during which time she ran a small business, paid her taxes, and raised four children (all American citizens). So yeah, at work, if a paying customer wants to speak to me in Spanish, I'm more than happy to oblige. And if that offends morons like you, well, then I'm even happier to do so!

Also, the first commenter seems to imply that you're only supposed to learn the language of that country if the country is English-speaking. Which is, of course, a load of crap. I live in Belgium, and we're fairly known for being good at learning languages/adapting to other people. I work in fast food, and most of the time I can speak Dutch, but a lot of the time I have to speak English, German or French as well. And, if possible, anything the customer wants to speak. Agreed, if you actually move to a different country, it's only polite to learn the language, but it's not needed when you go on holidays.

I never understood that. Like who cares if we speak Spanish with other customers? Its the persons choice and if it makes the company succeed in a way then why not allow Spanish when it's needed. Thankfully I've never had to deal with my bosses getting angry cause I spoke Spanish in fact it's one of the reasons I was hired! So it's good to speak 2 languages! :)

Wonder what this stupid company is you work/worked for, sounds terrible