Am I being a Nazi? Language in the workplace.

[alanzs]

Anyway let me translate for you. "These bloody third world Kiwis! They live in uninhabitable damp and mould infested homes they all believe are worth $500k. No heating, no insulation and they fight over who owns the damn fire wood in the street. They all say that it doesn't get cold enough to need heating, yet they take more time of sick with chronic asthma and influenza than anywhere else in the world - As soon as I save up enough for the airfare - I'm back to Moscow".

Absolutely classic. Maybe that's what he's afraid they are saying. Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't talking about you.

[YellowDog]

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en...e+Search&meta=

I am fairly sure that you sir are full of shit.
I speak a little japanese...

Would anyone NOT full of the brown stuff please close their KB membership.

I thought it was a mandatory requirement!

[1 Free Man]

And why not talk the language of the land, that way everyone can join in the conversation.

That could be interesting to hear. Maori spoken with a russian accent. Fark the mind boggles

[1 Free Man]

Am I being a Nazi?

In our workplace we have several different cultures. We have two Russian people (one just joined us) and they have started chatting to each other in Russian with day to day work things. I personally find this very offensive and bad taste. We have two Chinese guys too that make a point of speaking English in front of everyone else and I my boss also finds it very rude that the Russians are speaking local lingo.

Would I be fair is saying

You can speak it if you are on the phone etc to a partner etc

Anything in the work place with work people, English is only acceptable – no if, buts, or maybes.

May I ask the question-"How would you feel if they were deaf-mutes and were comunicating via signing." Would you be offended then???

[awayatc]

How many fingers....?

[Joni]

It is usual and polite to excuse yourself when you wish to communicate in a language that excludes the majority of the audience.

But you are not the audience; they are talking to each other???

I have been on the other side of the fence... working for a company with 60 odd people, about 35% max were kiwi's... we had lots of Asian people, Samoans, Russians, and of course the odd Saffa too!

Now English is my first language, but one of my work mates Afrikaans was his... so he spoke to me in his first language because he knew I spoke it as well.

He spoke to me in Afrikaans, when we were chatting and if it was work related, but it was one on one... not a group thing. Same as the Asian guys, and the 2 Russian guy, they spoke to each other in their home languages as well.

Until one day the "ruling came" through... only English... pffft ok we thought, but we all had a good laugh about it (except Len)... We never excluded someone, if someone else was involved we spoken English 100%, Len was always considerate and respectful about that. So we realised it was a control thing, people just did not like not knowing... they don’t care if they are involved in the conversation or not, they just want to know what is being spoken about! It’s the “what about me” factor I see so much of in NZ, or that is what we (as in the 65% non kiwi’s) decided it was all about…

Oh and the "dinner" or "social event" analogies don’t work either... you go to one of these events to socialise with a group of people... slightly different to having a quick one on one chat at work.

Len felt comfortable speaking with me in his home language, he felt like a little bit of home was being brought to his work life, and it made him more relaxed and content in a way, that he could be himself at work in Auckland so far away from Pretoria where he came from. The “ruling” hurt him… made him feel like what he was a person was not good enough even though he never excluded anyone and made sure he was respectful. He resigned a few weeks later. HUGE loss to the company, very few coders of that skill around…. And all he wanted was to be able to say hi, how was your day, oh btw Joanne the software eta has been brought forward by a week or what ever… in Afrikaans. I got where he was coming from.

[YellowDog]

Well yes I kind of agree with you however there are things you cannot say at work in English and you are now saying that it is OK to say them in a language that the people in authority cannot understand.

It is not what you say, it is how you say it! Personally I quite like to hear foreign dialogues and I enjoy trying to match up the body language with the words to see if I can work out what they are saying. I wouldn't be doing this if they were speaking English. I would probably just ignore them (unless it was really juicy).

[cheese]

Well I have 100% back up from my boss and so I guess we are going to push it.

The thing is if he could keep it to personal conversations that would be fine. but with workplace ones, he needs to keep it in english so we are all in the loop. The other ting is that he is not a trustworthy person. its as bad as emailing people behind your back. I'm not trying to be a Kiwi Hitler, I'm just trying run a constructive workplace, and to be honest he isn't being constructive.

Thanks for your input everyone, its been interesting to read you opinions.

[kevfromcoro]

Recently i was a way on a job..and ended up staying in backpackers..full of Germans....the girls made a bit of effort to talk english,,,but the guys sat in the lounge talking german..totally oblivious to me being there..
was trying to watch the news on TV.but these 4 guys just took over the conversation.in german
found it extremaly rude

[YellowDog]

Recently i was a way on a job..and ended up staying in backpackers..full of Germans....the girls made a bit of effort to talk english,,,but the guys sat in the lounge talking german..totally oblivious to me being there..
was trying to watch the news on TV.but these 4 guys just took over the conversation.in german
found it extremaly rude

English is Germanic so is it quite easy to understand. "Vot ist your name" = "What is your name"

[captain_andrey]

Recently i was a way on a job..and ended up staying in backpackers..full of Germans....the girls made a bit of effort to talk english,,,but the guys sat in the lounge talking german..totally oblivious to me being there..
was trying to watch the news on TV.but these 4 guys just took over the conversation.in german
found it extremaly rude

So if you went to travel to Germany and met lots of English speaking people in backpackers would you speak English or try to speak German?
If you wanted to talk to them so badly, you could always pick up a few starter phrases. German isnt that hard.

[pritch]

How is speaking Russian to each other rude?

It depends on the circumstances. If they are working and conversing just the two of them, it would be entirely acceptable.

If they were sitting at a smoko table with others and started talking Russian that'd definitely be less than good manners.

When I was in the army and someone at the table wished to speak Maori they would always announce that they were going to do that and ask to be excused. That would be a polite way to do it.

An extreme example is described by P J ORourke. He walked into a bar on the high veldt, everyone in the establishment was speaking Afrikaans. He walked up to the bar and spoke in English, every conversation in the place switched instantly to English. Extremely polite. Polite but almost spooky :-)

[captain_andrey]

English is Germanic so is it quite easy to understand. "Vot ist your name" = "What is your name"

Haha.... Wie heißt du?

[Jez]

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en...e+Search&meta=

I am fairly sure that you sir are full of shit.
I speak a little japanese...

my spelling was a little out originally

but seeing as you speak a little of the language good sir, then you might know that chin chin nametei is a loose translation to the saying we have which is blowjobs.

Chin chin is japanese for Penis
nametei is japanese for suck
kudasai is japanese for please

so the direct translation is penis suck please, due to the structure of japanese sentences it can be restructured in english to suck penis please or what i quickly refer to as 'blowjobs' so i dont have to type so damned much :P

[YellowDog]

Haha.... Wie heißt du?

Almost got away with it :-)

Dad's Army and Only Fools & Horses can't be wrong!