When people call my office, and don't speak English, do I have a right to hang up?

Question

they call and get frustrated because I don't understand them....is it wrong to hang up?

Answer 1

no. business is business. try to get them to either slow down as they speak or tell them to get a realtive/friend who speaks english to call back with their concerns.

if it's a language that you hear often, like Spanish, learn to say:

"I don't speak Spanish, plaese have someone who speaks English call us to talk about your problem."

If you do this, the customer will appreciate your concern and your bosses might take note of your initiative.

Answer 2

Politely tell them that you only speak English. I don't think your boss would appreciate you hanging up on potential customers/clientele unless you actually own the company/agency.
-What type of business do you work for that many non-English speakers call into? Is your company targeting non-English speakers?
Try learning a few catch phrases such as "No hablo ingles" and people will respect you for that and callback with an English speaker. I can understand your frustration, but being bilingual is essential in many parts of the world, especially our country (USA). Trust me, it'll make you more marketable when you consider future career opportunities.
My last two jobs, which pay very well, required a bilingual person and I was told that speaking Spanish was one of the reasons I was selected from a competitive candidate pool.

Answer 3

I am an American living aboard. I am trying my absolute best to learn the local language. I absolutely hate it when people hang up on me because my accent is not perfect. In my office in the US, I have had people hand me the phone saying, "I have no clue what this person is saying", but I am able to understand every word.

If talking to people who struggle with English frustrates you, get someone to help. Find a co-worker, compliment him/her on how well he/she does with these calls and then let them help.

Answer 4

I hear ya girl! Sigh. This is what I say. Please rephrase your question so that I may understand it. They can't because they don't speak English and I don't speak Hindi or whatever. If they become frustrated, that is their problem. They chose to immigrate to a new country without understanding the language. It is up to them to take English classes, (at the Government's expense of course) to help them settle into their new country. At the end of the one way conversation, I ask them to find someone who is able to speak English, a neighbor or whatever and phone back. Politely but firmly.

Answer 5

Do they not speak english at all, or just poorly?

It's your phone, you have a right to do with it as you wish (if you own the company, that is...)

If you are just an 'employee' then you would have to ask your boss for the company guidelines as to proper phone handling techniques.

A good business person would make an effort to try and help the person no matter what. Maybe you can try to discern a phone number, what language they actually do SPEAK, and an email address. Maybe you can find someone within the company that does speak that language who can help them via email or what-have-you.

Answer 6

It depends on where you work. I could get fired for just hanging up on someone who calls. There are some people who speak English so poorly that I can barely understand them as well.

Answer 7

Does someone in your office speak that foreign language?

Is anyone in your office expecting a call from someone speaking that foreign language?

Ask around and if you find someone according to either answer above, let them speak with that person. Hang up otherwise.

Answer 8

Remember English is just a language spoken by majority of language, nothing more that that.When most number of people talk this language, you shd also talk atleast in business, else you loose business.You have to learn a language, either it may English, or chinese or portughese.If you go to Brazil, if you dont talk in Portughese, you will out of scene, so learn any language for survival.Dont think, English is such a great language, its just a language spoken by most number of peoples

Answer 9

If you are employed certainly not.If they can not speak english and you can not communicate in language they speaking at least you may communicate in your language that you are unabale to understand them.If they are able to understand you .Any how some resuelt may come out.

Answer 10

u don't understand, what's the point of talking. Just say I don't understand and hang up.