Polish speaking???

CuriousG

Chinasea wrote: »

As I said if they were speaking Irish then I very much doubt if the OP would have a problem.

Think you are missing a minor detail here - it is a shop. In Ireland.

The fact you would rather call someone 'racist' over this than admit it is rude to come to a country and not bother to speak the NATIVE language AT WORK (anything else is different) is silly.

Not Poland.

While it is great that there are so many different Nationalities here, is that an excuse for people to be rude, not matter what language it is in? No.

Polish is not a race, by the way.

brokenarms

CuriousG wrote: »

Think you are missing a minor detail here - it is a shop. In Ireland.

The fact you would rather call someone 'racist' over this than admit it is rude to come to a country and not bother to speak the NATIVE language AT WORK (anything else is different) is silly.

Not Poland.

While it is great that there are so many different Nationalities here, is that an excuse for people to be rude, not matter what language it is in? No.

Polish is not a race, by the way.

Yeah have to agree with you there. Simple manners. This is by no means is a reflection on the Polish community, who are generally very friendly and a good sort.
If two people where speaking Irish in the company of another who did not understand a word, I would class such people as ass holes as well. What some people fail to realize is that this can go on for 40 hours a week. Every week. Not for 5 mins in the back store. Even the most tolerant among us can begin to see a problem in manners.

CommanderC

So when they are speaking to each other, it's in their own language, but when they are speaking directly to you and to customers, they speak in English....what's the problem here ?

If they are not speaking to you, then it's none of you're business what they are saying.

I actually cannot believe how paranoid you are. You are calling them rude and ignorant.......why ?? Because you are not their number one concern ???

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they were talking about you because your post was obnoxious and self centred.

I worked in a country, where the native language was not English, about 3 years ago. Another guy started working for the same company and it turns out that he was from New Zealand (where I'm from). Why the **** would we not speak English to each other ???

Basically, I get the impression that you think you are the most important person in this situation......well you are not !!!

If the situation was reversed and you were working in Poland for example, with one other Irish person, do you actually expect us to believe that you wouldn't speak English to one another ????

LOTTOWINNER

CommanderC wrote: »

So when they are speaking to each other, it's in their own language, but when they are speaking directly to you and to customers, they speak in English....what's the problem here ?

If they are not speaking to you, then it's none of you're business what they are saying.

I actually cannot believe how paranoid you are. You are calling them rude and ignorant.......why ?? Because you are not their number one concern ???

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they were talking about you because your post was obnoxious and self centred.

I worked in a country, where the native language was not English, about 3 years ago. Another guy started working for the same company and it turns out that he was from New Zealand (where I'm from). Why the **** would we not speak English to each other ???

Basically, I get the impression that you think you are the most important person in this situation......well you are not !!!

If the situation was reversed and you were working in Poland for example, with one other Irish person, do you actually expect us to believe that you wouldn't speak English to one another ????

+1

This sums up my opinion exactly.

Jim2007

brokenarms wrote: »

Even the most tolerant among us can begin to see a problem in manners.

The bad manners, I see here is you complaining about the fact that you can't listen in on other people's private conversations....

On top of this the language objective of the EU is that every citizen should speak two foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue and to promote language diversity. Requiring people to speak a specific language in the work place would constitute discrimination under article 21, unless of course you prohibited everyone from speaking their mother tongue!

Marcin_diy

over 8 years ago, when I started my first job in Ireland in sawmill around 80% of staff were Polish. I signed my contract in Polish and English, all safety signs were translated. In the factory and in canteen we were all speaking Polish. Irish were in one corner, we took the rest of place.
We were trying to make a contact with them several times, invited them for cigarette, etc, but we all had a feeling that they thought they are better than we are, and they are more important, intelligent, whatever else. After some time we stopped making any effort and just started ignoring them and talking Polish only all the time keeping English to minimum. Maybe in some cases it is your fault, that other nationalities think that in your opinion you are someone better and look strange at them?


what about joining their conversation once with " hey lads, I'm friendly person, would like to talk to you, but u speak Polish all the time and I can't understand you!! lets make a deal - you will teach me some Polish, and Ill try to help you with your English, your grammar an pronunciation needs some work. what ya think?"

mixery

It's a nice topic and all, some interesting opinions, but I have one question. What does the law say about that(Equality tribunal and all)? The situation is: it's a factory, there's a line, and say there work 12 people-6 Irish and 6 Polish. Each groups speaks in it's "own" language. It's an unwritten rule that English should be spoken, it's veery vaguely mentioned in the rulebook(it's a remark more than a rule). Yet the Polish are being constantly reminded that English should be spoken. They have had meetings where they were warned to stop as there will be consequences, but no actual written warning was made. May I just add that this happens only on this line, 50 others are fine. People talk between themselves about random things just because the work is boring. Any issues regarding work are dealt with in English. So if the managment does continue in their policy, do they have the right to ban foreign language from being spoken? It started off as the managment asking for a favour, so no one feels alienated, but now it's turning into a bit of a drama.