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
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Top comments

amdm 0

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

153 2
24788 6

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

51 9

Comments

AshleyRose784 0

well that's just obnoxious. most jobs prefer an employee to be bilingual

0 1
Carosello 0

¿qué si hablaba español? most people here are just ignorant if you ask me what if the person was VISITING Canada? Psh, as if most of you go and learn an entirely different language for a vacation

1 0
spazzdoodle 0

So true, I'd like to see how many people learn French for their vacation to Paris or Spanish for Barcelona. Or even how many Mandarin-speakers there were among all the tourists during the Beijing Summer Olympics.

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Sammara 0

Tengo una problema con las personas que piensen es facil a aprender una idioma nueva. I've been studying Spanish for 7 years and am still struggling! You can't learn a language overnight, especially one like English where we have more euphemisms than any other language.

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fastcared 1

sounds like your boss has issues

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buddybash 0

your manager is write I moved to this country and I learned the langauge **** the people that don't take the time to learn and except others to know there ******* language if your going to live here learn the language just like if you move to Italy learn ******* Italian

0 2
Twinklestar 0

You didn't do a very good job of learning English. Maybe you should go back and take some more classes. I'm sure the OP would've helped you in another language besides English as well if they were able to.

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Maddoctor 10

Well I see you've learned the appropriate parts of english the word "****" fits into.

0 0
Sammara 0

It's time to quit that job. They should love that you can help a whole area of customers that no one else cna help, not be worried about customers being unable to understand you when you are not speaking to them. I notice that you are in Canada. I know English and French are both spoken in Canada. Do they get upset when you speak English when some of the customers may only speak French? And what about the guy who spoke Spanish? Why aren't they worried that he, and those like him, would be offended by everyone speaking English? I don't think people realize how hard it is to learn a new language. I worked with English as a Second Language kids, and they worked so hard to get their English down, but it takes years. Years. And yet, people think it is an overnight thing. Good for you for helping that customer. I used to do that at my retail jobs as well, and I always got thanked, not criticized. I think it's time for you to look for a new job.

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Dogman332 0

I speak English, Latin and Portugese, not really helpful languages, but all the people commenting on how they think that people should learn english upon entering our country are idiots that have never recieved an education. You have to know another language to get into college in America.

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Sammara 0

Why does everyone think that that guy moved there, and wasn't just visiting? This was written by someone in Canada, so it is definitely possible that the customer was a visitor from Spain.

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nooneknowsmyname 0

There is so much hypocrisy from people who believe in their nationalistic views that if a person is visiting to their country, that person must learn the language. From what I've observed, although these people insist that they shouldn't have to to cater to foreigners, it seems as if they want foreigners to cater to them...

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theschweigert 0

yeah it does but only in OUR ENGLISH SPEAKING country. they even state that they understand visitors. it doesnt make sense to come to a nation speaking a different language than yours and b*tch about everybody not understanding you. I'm pretty sure that if they visited a country they would not complain, because as someone said, they would bring a pocket dictionary of that language. but you sound like a lazy shit who only reads comments smaller than 5 lines.

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cartering 0

Since she was in Canada, then she could have learned French instead of English. If she was in the US, telling her to use sign language would be most appropriate since anyone who has passed kindergarten knows that the US has no official language, and the founding fathers specifically made sure English wouldn't be made an official language, because they wanted all immigrants who arrived here to immediately belong

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yellowfdDriver 0

That's BS...if anything you should get praised for being sensitive to a customer's needs...and having them drop over 2gs in the store.

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