Language Barriers

[Geek King]

Then I proceeded to cuss her out in German Her:

And german is such a lovely language to curse in. It really sounds like cursing. I wish I could remember more from my collage days.

Bis später!

[smileyeagle1021]

And german is such a lovely language to curse in. It really sounds like cursing. I wish I could remember more from my collage days.

Bis später!

ah yes... verpiss dich archschloff sounds so much cooler than anything in english

[Evil Queen]

Italian and French are lovely languages to curse in too. It sounds like you're talking about an exotic dish.

I speak english. I am conversationally fluent in french (but I'm learning to be better) and can periodically speak german and use American Sign Language. (I have to be the only person in the entire company that can do it)

I think I've learned enough languages for this lifetime.

[Dreamstalker]

The Assistant at the "repair shop" speaks extremely poor English, and her accent is so heavy most of the time I can't understand what she's saying.

She would get mad at me when I didn't understand her (shouting is not going to help). Customers would get mad at her when she couldn't figure out what they wanted (yet she would not let me deal with them, then their ire would transfer to me as some thought I had told her to talk to them). Owner would get ticked off at me because I can't really communicate with her.

I also suspected that she was talking trash about me to the owner (which was confirmed when the owner told my stepfather something about my job performance that, using a little deduction, was determined that it was reached through mistaken observations).

[wanderingjoe72]

Living in the southwest (currently Arizona) I see this all the time. Broken or no english is common in a lot of areas, as it is, those that want to improve their situation and expand business seem to have no problem learning english or attempting to. Since I am hispanic and speak spanish, I will go into spanish mode if the person is making an effort to speak english but is obviously struggling. I also make it a point to thank them for trying to use english first and encourage them to keep it up.
Other than that, I have no sympathy for someone who has been here for years and hasn't bothered to learn english since state and other services will cater to them.

[auntiem]

Most of my clients bring a translator with them - usually their child, more fluent spouse or co worker so I'm lucky that way. One of my co-workers is always confused about how Mexican names work so usually she calls me over to double check that she did it correctly. I usually maintain eye contact / address both the translator and the client because most of the time the client can understand what I'm saying they just can't speak English well enough to get the transaction done without both of us getting frustrated.
Sadly, I can't seem to learn languages well. I have two parts to my brain - English and Every Other Language. It is embarrasing when I'm in Mexico - since I substitute French words for Spanish and don't even catch myself. My SO thinks it is hilarious since he is very fluent. For whatever reason one of the few word that I can remember is ashtray and since he can't ever remember it we end up having the following exchange: He'll be chatting away with a waiter point to me I'll say "ashtray" and then he continues chatting away.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

A woman came in last week for a service that our location doesn't offer. Some of the other company locations do, but we don't. She couldn't understand that although it could be done at other company offices, we couldn't do it but there was somewhere she COULD right across the street!

I had to get a rep from another store on the phone who knew some spanish to explain it to her. I don't know if it was because she got the hint or because she got frustrated with my colleagues broken spanish, but she left after the call.

Oh and another one, if you are going to bring a translator: Make sure they have a decent knowledge of english!

Awhile back a group of mexican guys came in with ONE translator with them who was not very good at all. It took us forever to a do a few simple things because Mr. Genius was constantly mistranslating/not understanding.

[Broomjockey]

I'd like to point out that we've gotten dangerously close to Fratching territory more than a few times in this thread. Please lay off with the "they should learn the language" type stuff, and keep it to specific SCs you've encountered, or comments on the specific ones mentioned.

[Cat]

I just remembered one different languages story that was funny....again in the watch store....I had just gotten back from Paris, and felt like using my terrible French, well, lo and behold, a tourist from France!! She spending the summer with some relatives, she was sweet, she was insane.

She came in the store and said, "Bon jour!" I replied in my bad French, and a elementary conversation took place. LOL, she couldn't speak a lick of English, she knew I could barely speak French...et every time she came in she sought me out, and tried to help my bad French....one day hew nephew came in as translator, and you could tell he didnt want to shop. I mentioned to him, "I wish I knew better French. " He looked at his aunt, and said, "I wish I didn't know any of it"


She wasn't and SC at all, but thought this was pretty funny language story

[Aislin]

We had an SC today who came up to the back of the lab and asked in spanish if i spoke spanish or had someone who spoke spanish working. I answered no and since I had a line waiting at the proper place to get service, aka the photo counter, I returned to waiting on them, as I was in the back of the lab finishing a ladies' order of prints before charging her. He proceeds to scream at me that he needs help and I'm a b*tch. I told him that he could leave as he was being disruptive and rude. He hauls a woman over from the shop next door and since we have the same owner she is forced to translate. He wants me to fix his camera (we don't do that here). I tell her the name of the ONLY shop in town who does and tells her they charge a HUGE up front fee to look at the camera. He starts screaming that it isn't good enough he wants me to tell him where the shop it and how much it will cost and give him my phone book. I tell her to get the security guard that I want him out of the store. He get the boot screaming about the phone book. We don't have one we have the internet. And the 12 people waiting were more important than getting him a # and address as he was such an EW.

[Spork4pedro]

I understand this all too well! I live and work in a large hispanic community and I'm always amazed when customers get mad at me for not being able to speak Spanish! My manager and a couple coworkers are fluent but majority of us don't speak it at all. Luckily we have spanish menus and are able to have customers point to what they want

[Primer]

I grew up in central Texas. I took Spanish in public school. When I was checking out which university to attend, UT wanted me to have French, Russian, or German for a foreign language for my major. I decided to attend Southwest Texas State which would allow me to keep my Spanish credits. I still live in Texas, and I still speak (some) Spanish, and I still think I made the best decision for me.

[Chromatix]

On the fairly creative insult mentioned earlier, here's what Google Translate gives for several different languages. Use at your own risk!

French: Ta mère est tellement gras qui vit dans les ascenseurs, car elle ne peut pas sortir d'eux!

German: Ihre Mutter ist so fett, dass sie lebt in den Aufzügen, weil sie nicht bekommen kann aus ihnen heraus!

Spanish: Tu madre es tan grasa que vive en los ascensores, porque ella no puede salir de ellos!

Swedish: Din mamma är så fet att hon bor i hissar för att hon inte kan få ut av dem!

Finnish: Äitisi on niin lihava, että hän asuu hissejä, koska hän ei voi päästä pois heistä!

Finnish is usually a very good choice for insulting people, because so few people know any Fennic language - only Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian count. It's also very easy to learn how to pronounce, just much harder to learn how to translate.

Russian: Ваша мать имеет столь жира, что она живет в лифтах, потому что она не может выйти из-под них!

Obviously it helps to be able to read Cyrillic for that last one. I can't, sigh.

Perhaps Polish would be a better choice: Twoja matka jest tak tłuszcz, który żyje w windy bo nie może wydostać się z nich! But that looks very hard to pronounce.

Still, here's how to ask "Do you speak <language>?" in various languages:

French: Parlez-vous français?

German: Sprechen sie Deutsch?

Finnish: Puhutko Suomi?

Swedish: Talar du svenska?

Spanish: ¿Hablas español?

Russian: Вы говорите по-русски?

Polish: Czy mówisz po polsku?

[Evil Queen]

Well, if you're going to post how to say things, maybe you should add literal pronounciation keys.

French: Parlez-vous français?

Par-lay Vu Fron-say.

Yes: Oui (We)
No: Non (non- like non-smoking)

German: Sprechen sie Deutsch?

Sprekken Ze doh'oh-ch.

Spanish: ¿Hablas español?

Ha-blas Esp-An-ol[d].

Spanish seems to be the easiest to pronouce but I have a hard time learning it because all the fluent spanish speakers that I know speak so fast my brain so "Bwaaaaa???"

[Chromatix]

Well, if you're going to post how to say things, maybe you should add literal pronounciation keys.

Good idea. Unfortunately I have no idea how to do the Polish and Russian, but I can at least fill in the Swedish and Finnish.

Finns always accent the first syllable and do not use the normal interrogative tone for a question. However, this tone rule is optional. Every letter is sounded and every sound has a letter. Most words have several simple syllables, rather like Japanese.

Pay particular attention to the vowel sounds - there are eight of them (AEIOUYÄÖ), plus combinations and long versions. Long sounds (both vowel and consonant) are doubled letters.

Finnish: Puhutko Suomi?

PU-hut-koh SUE-om-i.

Finnish: Äitisi on niin lihava, että hän asuu hissejä, koska hän ei voi päästä pois heistä!

AIE-ti-si on NEEN LEE-ha-vah, ET-tah han (as in hand) AH-sue HIS-say-ya, KOS-kah han EH voy PAAA-sta (just like "pasta" but longer first syllable) POH-is HEY-sta!

In fact, the word order is surprisingly English-like in the above, except for the grammar suffixes. It transliterates back as: "Mother-yours is very meaty, so-that she lives elevator-in, because she not can get out there-from."


Swedish is probably a bit more familiar, though more complex. You'll notice that Finnish has borrowed one or two words from here, but the rest is like either English or German.

Swedish: Talar du svenska?

Actually, this one's pretty obvious. The trick is running the "sv" and "sk" combinations, which are not very English. But you know how to say "Sven", right?

Swedish: Din mamma är så fet att hon bor i hissar för att hon inte kan få ut av dem!

Din MAM-mah air SOR fet, at hon (as in "honour" but with sounded H) bore ee HISS-ar, fer at hon IN-teh can for OOT 'ave ("have" without the H) dem!

That one can probably be worked out by someone who doesn't know Swedish, though. But the fact that you're speaking Swedish at all is probably insulting enough!