"I don't speak english!" aka treating the poor bus driver like an idiot

[Jay 2K Winger]

I don't get many "No speaky English" kinds of things at my job. Yeah, there's plenty of shoppers who don't speak the language very well (or at all), but they aren't generally being sucky about it. The most common is a few Hispanic guys coming through my line to buy their cases of beer and snacks... "[wholesale store] card?" "No." And just the way they said it made it pretty clear they didn't speak English very well. So I sigh, pack their stuff back into their cart, and explain, as simply and as clearly as I can, they need to go to the membership desk to get a pass or a card.

I know a LITTLE bit of Spanish, so I can wish them "buenas tardes" or "buenas noches" while saying "Adios!"

One time, though, I had this Hispanic woman in line, and she'd forgotten her card at home or something (so I understood from her daughter, who spoke a little bit of English). I looked to the woman and said, "Usted no tiene su tarjeta?" (You don't have your card?) She launches into a rapid explanation in Spanish, but stops when I make the "time out" gesture and explain, "Yo sé un poQUIto de español." (I know a LITTLE bit of Spanish.) She looks embarrassed. "Lo siento." (I'm sorry.) I then called over one of my many coworkers who speak Spanish fluently, and translate through her.

Really, the sucky people in regards to the "no speaky English" thing tend to be the bigoted jerks in line behind them, who will comment to me after the others leave, "You should learn the damn language if you're gonna live in the damn country." I just offer a noncommittal, monosyllabic response and get on with my work.

[NightWatch]

Tip: When someone is technically committing a crime (not paying bus fare), a simple, "Would you like me to call the police?" seems to jog their memory on the language issue.
If it's a coworker using language barriers to avoid work, "Would you like to find a new job?" seems to work just fine. *cough*

[Lace Neil Singer]

I still ride the bus to town to go fun shopping, even tho I can drive; the one way system is dire and I prefer to face it safely on a bus rather than riding a motorbike. XD I've seen quite a bit of suckiness; tho it's usually teenagers who cause most of it rather than "no speaky English" people. XD Once tho, a mum had a huge verbal fight with the bus driver, cuz she wanted her three kids to get on the bus for free. All of them were over five years old; last time I checked, you had to pay for school age kids. In the end, he told her to pay up or get off.

[depechemodefan]

What drives me nuts is people will call, only speaking Spanish. A co-worker will ask if they speak any English, and the caller says "no." So the co-woker gets a spanish speaker, usually me. So I get on the phone. Now my Spanish is serviceable. No way will I pass as a native speaker in any Spanish-speaking country. So I'll speak Spanish, or else I'll say "Yo hablo un pucito" then they start speaking English. It's most annoying when I'm busy doing something and get interrupted and I get on the phone then I have the convo. in English.

Sometimes a person will call and ask for a Spanish speaker. My co-worker will get me, then the caller asks in perfect English (ie, person is no a Spanish speaker) "how do you say 'dog' in Spanish" or "What's the word for "please" in Spanish?" Which is annoying since anyone could just pick up the Spanish dictionary and tell them.