Am i the only English born and bred person who gets annoyed when going into a shop,PO or bank etc.and is served by someone who can't speak sufficient English to make themselves understood? If we must have immigrants,shouldn't they be able to speak our language coherently ?
2007-03-07 07:22:57 · 42 answers · asked by trish b 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
I agree that if people are working in a job that involves providing a service to the public and they are talking to people on an everyday basis then yes they should be able to speak English fluently. A lot of people are to scared to say this for fear of being called racist, it has nothing to do with racism it is all to do with competent customer care.
P.S. "Go Know Thyself", if you bothered to read the question properly in the first place then you'd have realised it was for people in the UK. We don't have that many native americans around here so no, I don't know how to speak it believe it or not!!!!!!!!!
2007-03-07 07:28:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 10⤊ 1⤋
I agree to a degree.
I do find it frustrating, I recently started uni and have a culturally mixed class and someone the other day said we should be taught in Portuguese as this is a more international language. IN SCOTLAND?
But us English are the most ignorant of peoples I personally have come across, we travel the world inflicting our language on everyone. Many years ago I visited Tunisia, and was told that if their children do not know 2 languages other than Tunisian by the time they are 13 then they are not educated further. I am not 100% on that fact but it shows the difference, they had to learn English or French and at least one other before they could continue into higher education.
It's still bloody frustrating though.
PS don't get me started on call centres in far off lands selling you stuff you do not want. GRrrrrrr.
2007-03-07 15:06:24 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Interestingly, though accents can be frustrating, I don't think most Americans want to understand. People are already biased when they see someone who looks different or as soon as they hear an accent. I think there is much less of an excuse for people who's native language is English but don't care enough to be educated in their own language. I don't mind spelling and grammar mistakes here and there, but so many people I talk to (especially online) are incomprehensible and sometimes even "proud" of the way they talk. However, I do think when you go to a new country you should have to learn the language there on some level. I just think if you compare ability to speak the language with some of "our own people", the bar isn't so high that that would be very difficult.
2007-03-07 07:44:25 · answer #3 · answered by eclectic 1 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I absolutely agree!! I took a trip to London last year for a spot of music and shopping and didn't find an English speaking person in the whole of Wembley!! Sad when you visit your own capital city and you can't even hear your language being spoken anywhere! Got fed up with being looked at as if I'm a freak for being English!
2007-03-07 22:51:47 · answer #4 · answered by supated 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No you are not. I live in Ireland 6years now. I go to carers course after that social studies for3y. I can solve puzzles, speak the dialect now. Also apeak norwegian, swedish, can understand german and planing to learn spanish.
I can just say that I am equaly annoyed when somebody working in public sector don't know more than 200words. But I always think that it might be their beggining and try to help them out. But I realy don't think that after a number of years they stay at the same level and don't bother. They are lonely then and loose so much.
Languages helped me to communicate with different people. I lerned alot about various cultures, customes and it saved my butt number of times. In the last couple of months almost all of adverts for jobs require good knowledge of English. That should help.
2007-03-07 19:14:57 · answer #5 · answered by delta 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes I get annoyed too, if they come here they should be made to learn the language, It's rude and arrogant that if they are spoken to in English they can't understand a word thats been said. We have a 99p shop in sheffield and none of the staff are English. you can ask them a question,"have you got such a thing"? and they look at you gone out as though to say "What's she on about". And as though we are meant to know what they are saying.!!!
2007-03-07 20:49:06 · answer #6 · answered by Jeanette 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i personally hate it when i call my insurance company or sky tv and get someone who cannot understand a word i am saying and i have to repeat it 4 or 5 times before they get a hint of what i mean - i am not against anyone coming to britain to work or get a better life but if they cant understand one sentence and keep us on the phone for nearly 30 minutes when all it should take is 5 minutes i do get angry and frustrated with them - a few days ago i called to get my sky subsciption updated and it took me nearly half an hour to add to my package because the person couldnt understand what i wanted
basically it all comes down to fear of being accused of discrimination and not if they are suitable for the post, an example is that I was interviewing candidates for a position in our organisation along with my boss and there were 3 suitably qualified people who were perfect for the job and one with good qualifications but who could speak very little english and my boss pointed out that we have to consider them for the job as we would be discriminating if we didnt. The job involved speaking to thousands of people every month frpm all over the world and alot of them had very poor english and it took us all our time to understand them so there was little hope of the foreign candidate being able to - and when i pointed this out to my boss she was less than happy because that meant we would be discriminating
2007-03-07 22:41:00 · answer #7 · answered by heckuvapeach 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it's as bad when you get them on the phone, I run a mail order club and much of the time i'm sent the wrong orders because they cannot understand me.
2007-03-07 21:20:26 · answer #8 · answered by nosy old lady 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, I hate it when you have a problem on the phone, WHY o WHY do our calls go to other country's again you cant understand a word they say, ENGLISH SHOULD BE TAUGHT, BEFORE ANYONE CAN WORK OVER HERE,
2007-03-07 20:56:37 · answer #9 · answered by minniemix 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, absolutely.
I don't mind hearing foreign shopkeepers or whoever talking to each other in their language, as long as I understand their English.
They should be forced to learn English to a decent standard.
If I lived in a different country, I would have the courtesy to learn the language.
2007-03-07 21:24:05 · answer #10 · answered by ukdan 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋