English...

[Akame]

I'd like to think after living on both coasts of the US and in the Caribbean for over a decade, I'm pretty culturally diverse. But so help me, if you cannot speak English at even a conversational level you've got no place working for a State college's accounting office. It wastes MY time to have to have two phone conversations and then two more emails trying to reword the same thing so you can understand it.

Your company doesn't pay ME to do your job for you.


/kicks soapbox
/rant off

[Kainzo]

I work for a system's support line for a major Tax Accounting Software Development company... I understand your pain. I get calls from India, Japan, England ... can barely understand or comprehend what they are saying at times.

A callers name was Vajyahannada Mudhaahdmdare (not even remotely kidding)
How can I help you..... V-J? hah

[jilena]

Damnit. I was expecting a Samuel L. Jackson: "...DO YOU SPEAK IT?!"

[Akame]

Originally Posted by jilena [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Damnit. I was expecting a Samuel L. Jackson: "...DO YOU SPEAK IT?!"

I was very (very) tempted to do that. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[pickled_heretic]

In the interest of keeping this thread interesting, I want to mention that USA does not have an official language. Legally, public institutions have to accomodate any sort of language you could imagine, including Klingon. Conversely, public employees, given they are US Citizens, should not be legally obligated to speak English given the current legal requirement.

Would you support declaring English the official language of the United States? Should there be any secondary/tertiary official languages declared?

[Akame]

Originally Posted by pickled_heretic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

In the interest of keeping this thread interesting, I want to mention that USA does not have an official language. Legally, public institutions have to accommodate any sort of language you could imagine, including Klingon. Conversely, public employees, given they are US Citizens, should not be legally obligated to speak English given the current legal requirement.

Would you support declaring English the official language of the United States? Should there be any secondary/tertiary official languages declared?

I would support declaring English as the official language but at the same time my insides cringe because that would officially mean asinine words in the English dictionary would be "official" as well (Such as ginormous [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] ).

But, if public institutions have to accommodate languages then wouldn't they have to accommodate the fact that the small business I work for speaks English? The translation requirements seem awfully swapped here.

[PhelanKA]

So long as the lingua franca is English, people working in the US should be expected to speak English fluently. That's just simple logic. When/if the lingua franca changes then I'll be glad to learn that language to accomodate civilization.

[pickled_heretic]

Originally Posted by PhelanKA [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So long as the lingua franca is English, people working in the US should be expected to speak English fluently. That's just simple logic. When/if the lingua franca changes then I'll be glad to learn that language to accomodate civilization.

"should be expected" is not a policy change. Are you saying the status quo is acceptable, or are you saying that English should be made the Official language of the United States?

[PhelanKA]

Originally Posted by pickled_heretic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

"should be expected" is not a policy change. Are you saying the status quo is acceptable, or are you saying that English should be made the Official language of the United States?

Everyone in the world should be expected to speak English. As I said... It's the lingua franca (that is no longer franca [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] )

But making it a law? Sounds a bit far fetched to me. Common sense should make law obsolete and not the other way around. Unfortunately people want leglislate everything instead of acting in a rational sense and I believe that is what the OP is upset about.

Logically, someone in charge of customer service over the telephone should speak English fluently in the United States. To have hired someone that doesn't speak English fluently is illogical and both the employer and employee should be fired... from a cannon preferably.

[Xenephex]

Originally Posted by pickled_heretic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

In the interest of keeping this thread interesting, I want to mention that USA does not have an official language. Legally, public institutions have to accomodate any sort of language you could imagine, including Klingon.

I am aware that English is not the official language of the U.S., but can you give me some actual basis for what I bolded above? Not jailhouse lawyer logic please, some kind of real facts.

Also, it is worth noting that English is the official language of most states and a number of our territories as well. While I can imagine situations in which a U.S. citizen might not speak English, and I'm sure there are actual examples somewhere, I seriously doubt that there are sufficient numbers of non-English speaking U.S. citizens to make your subsequent point more than moot.