Hey guys,
I am just trying to get a glimpse of what you think on the following - i'm so fed up with people speaking their own languages in front of others in the office. Do you think it is rude to speak in your native language when there are so many other people who don't understand anything?
is it rude to speak your language in office?
By rickie - Posted on June 27th, 2009
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Well my boss says its rude but he then clearly does the opposite (!!!)
It is a matter of etiquette, in this case poor ettiquette.
>>>it's rude, impolite specialy they know your language...
Personally I really don't want to go back to the dark ages where people stabbed 'foreigners' out of suspicion that they were saying something about them (so self-centric to begin with). Language should be celebrated and people should be free to converce using the code they think best serves the purpose of each communicative event. If 2 or more people working at the same office happen to share a language that others do not and wish to use it then they should be free to do so. Often things can be expressed better in the other language. I speak both English and Indonesian with my wife. If we were not allowed to use it say, at the supermarket, that would be like tying our tongues to a pole and limiting our level of intimacy - we are a husband and wife for God's sake.
Having said that there is a limit. Sometimes there's a meeting or there is a situation where people are crammed into a lunchroom or something. In such cases the dominant group should be careful to use the Lingua-Franca of that room be that Arabic, Hindustani or English; so long as the max amount of people can participate in the dialog.
You are right sufirahasia,. In general, speak whichever language you want, but in certain situations it appears quite rude to exclude others from a common conversation.
I a have been the manager of a small task force where most of the members were not native speakers of English, and once I briefed them on an assignment, they would go on discussing it in their language and would deliver perfect results, so as long as their delivery is great, why should I care about the language they communicate in?
As far as I know it is rude to speak your native language at the office when you know your colleagues don’t understand it. I work in an English speaking office but I am not a native English speaker, in fact I am still having ielts preparation classes. The thing is that I always avoid speaking in my native language; this would be a sign of disrespect for my colleagues.
My workplace is supposed to be English only, but Hindi and Spanish are frequently used by the sub-groups that have those as their native language. If they are speaking near me, but not to me, I personally find it less distracting if they speak their native language, which I do not understand. I speak English, Russian and German. Everything else is just background noise. In the workplace, I am only interested in their results. I do not care what language they speak as long as the work gets done.