foreigner workers speaking in their own language in shops etc

pmcmahon wrote: »

"hindu" isn't a person/people This sort of ignorance drives me mad.

But Hindi is a language.

Anyhow, I've found some immigrants to be very pass-commentary when speaking among themselves. Perhaps no different to the 'Hector' stunt of cheekily commenting as gaeilge in front of people who don't understand, but rude nonetheless.

I was on a bus recently and there were a couple of Russian speaking guys being really quite pig ignorant about all the women who got on or off the bus.
Size of their tits, which one's they'd bang, then a big long debate about how ugly they reckoned Irish girls were - fat, don't look after themselves, bad skin, they had a long list.

My Russian's fairly rusty, but I was well able to get the gist, and they were happy to natter away in this offensive fashion assuming no one understood.
When I got off the bus, I couldn't stop myself from letting them know they'd been overheard.

I said something along the lines of "Если вы не любите оно здесь, то пойдите назад к Россия и умрите отравления спирта", only a bit meatier.
Or, to put it in a way that would be understood, "If you don't like it here in Ireland, p1ss off back to Russia and drop dead of alcohol poisoning, you c*nts."

I don't particularly mind people passing a quick word among themselves in shops. It's usually work-related and saves any confusion. "How much for this loaf?" in their own native tongue might get a more rapid and accurate answer than both people flailing in what is not always very fluent English.

irish-stew wrote: »

If they are speking to a customer, no. If they are speaking amoungst each other, wouldn't annoy me but would find it a bit rude. I have seen in some shops the supervisor/manager pull them up on it.

Yep.

tasha200 wrote: »

have to say the irish have done a great job integrating over the years also lol.. couldnt care less as long as they are doing there job, if they spoke swahili... Im not interested in their conversations wether in english irish or whatever, as long as Im not waiting in line and I am served etc... infact, you could say the same about cork people etc. lol.. what you going to say 'speak the queens english'.?????.............. lol

i dnt no......wht gng here.....durp......................??????????

Pot kettle.

freckly wrote: »

Not in the slightest! I worked abroad and babbled away in English to my colleagues because they spoke English to me. One day another colleague made a complaint about this at the staff meeting and the boss told her to cop on (a phrase he must have learned from me!). As long as workers here have enough English to communicate with the customer, who cares what they speak to each other!

There's the problem as far as I'm concerned.
Nobody should, in my opinion, be empoyed here unless they have the ability to speak English properly.

A quick example would be of my experience in my local pharmacy last month.
I handed in my prescription, but the doctor had not put my address on it.

The lady behind the counter was African.
She proceeded to ask for my address. I told her my address three times. She eventually handed me a post-it, pointed to it and said the word "Address".
I had to write my address down for her because she could not speak English.

A basic knowledge of the English alphabet would have helped her. All I would have had to do was to spell the address.
I tried that, but she still could not understand what I was saying.

Just for clarity, I do not have a strong accent. In fact, I have been told on many occasions that I am very well spoken.

At the end of the day, it's a case of "when in Rome".
If you go to Germany, do not expect the Germans to cater to your lack of German. The same applies to any country on this planet.

There's the thing, Rockery Woman. You made an effort.
The woman mentioned above did not.

I studied German for a few months. I cannot speak German, but I know the alphabet. Were someone to spell a german word out to me, I would be able to write it down.
In saying that, if I was to move to Germany, I would make a concerted effort to learn the local language, and not expect the German people to cater to me.

Obaraten wrote: »

I had this once where a Latvian commented on my tshirt saying it was gay,she was rather surprised when i answered her back in Russian;)

I'd say she was, seeing as they speak Latvian. :pac:

(I know, I know, Russian is the second standard language)

I can't believe something like this is even worth a thread it's so insignificant
an issue, next we'll have people complaining about people at the till in
general speaking amongst each other because our own personal expectations
of these people is that they are in the shop to work & not be human, they
can talk all they like when they're off the job. Of course this all stems from
a persons own paranoia and lack of self-confidence (ooh, complete strangers
might be laughing at me & that affects me somehow & we all know they have nothing better to talk
about than me). but why go all introspective & look at our own issues when
we can just give out about how others choose to communicate in a manner
that is natural to them, it's so much easier that way & they are just for'nurs
anyway so obviously they aren't even trying & most definitely aren't going
through hell doing multiple language courses or anything so yeah, double jobbers out!

This post has been deleted.

They should also be encouraged to send as much of their wages as possible out if the country. Wages that are funded with borrowed money. Of course if an Irish person goes to their country they can't even get a job, or buy anything without getting ripped off.

Anyone who disagrees with this is obviously racist.