If you can't speak the language, at least bring someone who can

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I had a lady come into today who did not speak english well at all. I do not know what her ethnicity was, maybe South American.

I speak English, some french and a bit of spanish, but that's it. She tried to describe what she wanted in very broken English but I couldn't figure it out. I at least got the "Xbox" part of it so I took over to the Xbox section and tried to get her to at least point or indicate to me what she was looking for but she kept talking quickly in her native tongue and using english words every now and then.

Eventually I told her slowly and plainly "I can not understand you well enough to help you". I also kind of threw my hands up (though not rudely) to indicate "I don't know what you want". She left in a bit of huff, obviously frustrated (I was too by this point).

I understand people have to learn english and I understand there comes a time when they have to test out those skills in the real world but this woman had to have known her english was not good and that she should have brought someone with her either to translate or interact with me to get done whatever it is she wanted to do.

This is not the only time this has happened to me either, some folks just seem kind of oblivious to language barriers and get needlessly frustrated despite my best efforts to help them.

NOTE: I realize this thread is a potential fratching bomb, so before the mods even comment on it, let me state directly it is NOT intended for derogatory discussion of any ethnic or racial group, rather general comments about SCs with communication issues.

[bhskittykatt]

I remember when I checked in a guest from Korea who didn't speak a lick of English. He was being escorted around town by a police officer who clearly spoke no Korean and was armed only with an English-Korean dictionary. I felt bad for both the guest and the police officer.

[Erin]

I had similar problems when I did credit card applications for an inbound telemarketing company about 10yrs ago.

I'd get people calling up who could barely speak English, and they'd insist on trying to complete an application with me. I'd go ahead and try (and those calls ruined my call times, because they'd take forever if we could get thru one) We'd usually get to a point where the person couldnt understand what we were asking, so we'd have to give them a customer service number and tell them to call to apply there.

Sometimes I'd get someone calling in, speaking English, and I'd start taking the application, and at some point the person would tell me that they were giving information for someone else because the other person didnt speak English. I'd have to immediately stop the application and tell them we couldnt continue, because we had to speak directly to the person...we couldnt take the applications thru an interpreter.

Usually ended up giving them a customer service number to the company that we were doing the applications for and let them apply directly that way.

The only ones that really bugged me, were the people who would call up, and ask in whatever language if there was an interpreter, and when I told them no (in English) and that we had to speak directly to the person applying, all of a sudden the caller could speak perfect English. (not trying to fratch here) I just never understood why they wanted an interpreter if they could speak perfect English. Oh well...

[MaggieTheCat]

Sometimes I'd get someone calling in, speaking English, and I'd start taking the application, and at some point the person would tell me that they were giving information for someone else because the other person didnt speak English. I'd have to immediately stop the application and tell them we couldnt continue, because we had to speak directly to the person...we couldnt take the applications thru an interpreter.

Just curious, did you ever deal with any Relay calls, where Deaf customers would call a Relay operator and type what they want to say, then the Relay operator would tell you, then you'd reply to the operator and they'd type out your reply to the Deaf person? I'm just curious if your job prevented that as well.

The only ones that really bugged me, were the people who would call up, and ask in whatever language if there was an interpreter, and when I told them no (in English) and that we had to speak directly to the person applying, all of a sudden the caller could speak perfect English. (not trying to fratch here) I just never understood why they wanted an interpreter if they could speak perfect English. Oh well...

We used to get this once in a while at the call center I used to work in. It kind of confused me too, but it was better than the ones who could only speak very broken English and refused to listen when I told them that we had no one who could interpret for them and wouldn't hang up (and we couldn't terminate the call.)

[HawaiianShirts]

The only ones that really bugged me, were the people who would call up, and ask in whatever language if there was an interpreter, and when I told them no (in English) and that we had to speak directly to the person applying, all of a sudden the caller could speak perfect English. (not trying to fratch here) I just never understood why they wanted an interpreter if they could speak perfect English. Oh well...

I had some who would get mad that no one in the store and/or call center spoke their native language. The call center was strictly English simply because most companies' phone trees would redirect non-English callers to other call centers. In the electronics store, we had several Spanish-speakers, three who knew American Sign Language, one Korean-speaker, and one Japanese-speaker, but that didn't do any good for the occasional arrogant French or Russian customer, and they made sure to let us know! (Though we did have nice customers of those two nationalities more often than arrogant ones, thankfully.)

Also had a woman caller once ask me, "Youuuu spik ehbanni?" I'm pretty sure she was asking if I spoke Spanish but couldn't pronounce the English name of the language, so it might have been, "You speak Espani?" But for the life of me, I would have sworn she asked if I spoke "Bunny." I had to tell her, "No, I don't speak Bunny." She hung up on me without another word.

[Midorikawa]

The language barrier is always frustrating, even when it's your own language. More than once I've spoken to Indians calling in and speaking English, but their accent is so heavy that I can't understand what they're saying. Absolutely maddening to know you can't communicate with someone. Invariably, the person on the other end of the line gets frustrated and hangs up, but there wasn't much I could do if I can't understand them.

[Chromatix]

Since I live in Finland, I have been known to meet call-centres half-way, with their limited English and my limited Finnish. I'm reasonably good at working out what they mean, though sometimes a degree of precision is required which precludes this.

[PepperElf]

i wish other countries had the kind of books japan did.

there was one that was a bit of a lifesaver.
and come to think of it, the book would be good for japanese in america as well...

the book consisted of chapters on subjects like "money" or "food" etc. and each page had items or simple concepts in cartoon form. then, they had the English word(s) for it, the pronunciation, and then the word in kanji (or katakana, hiragana etc).

really came in handy

[Midorikawa]

really came in handy

As complex as the written Japanese language can get, especially when Kanji is introduced, I can imagine it would be helpful, but a pictorial based language book would be infinitely more helpful than a bunch of words and their meanings, regardless of language.

[bainsidhe]

I've mostly lucked out with non-English speakers. As embarrassing as it is to ask someone to spell out what they're saying because I can't understand their accent, most people are quite patient with me. When I finally visit another country (hope hope), hopefully people will still be as patient with me.

[StanFlouride]

For a while we had 3 young Americans of Latino descent working at the hardware store at the same time and we would frequently get workers who would go up to them and start speaking Spanish.
Unfortunately, they had to shrug and point to me, the big blonde gringo who was the only person who spoke Spanish.
I've studied 6 languages (German, Spanish, Tagalog, Italian, ASL and English) so I can often discern someone's needs even though I don't understand every word.

[AccountingDrone]

I had a lady come into today who did not speak english well at all. I do not know what her ethnicity was, maybe South American.

any time I am in a location I do not speak the language in, I bring along a small pocket dictionary/touristy phrase book ... I have them in french, german, spanish, italian, arabic, japanese, russian and norwegian. I actually can manage in french and spanish, but I collect phrasebooks and buy whatever I find in flea markets when we go on sundays =)

I have found it can be fun trying to work with someone using a phrasebook - it makes me look less like an ugly american tourist, and I am absolutely willing to sound silly by trying to speak a foreign language and sounding like the average 3 year old ... breaks down barriers when the other person starts giggling =)

[Lace Neil Singer]

My problem is that while I am unable to understand any language other than English and basic French (my French would be described by French people as "broken"), my main problem is undestanding accents. It's alright if the person is right in front of me, as I can watch their mouth, but on the phone, I am useless and end up passing the phone over.

Once at the pizza place, this irate Irishman rang up and was getting very angry with me cuz I just could not understand a word he said. O_o I passed the phone to my manager who tried to calm him down... and he hung up on her. XD

[Jay 2K Winger]

I have a very rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, despite four years of it in high school. (Part of me likes to blame the fact that those last two years were first-thing-in-the-morning classes, when no teenager's brain is fully functional.)

I've retained enough to make simple sentences, and tell Hispanic customers who try to speak Spanish to me, "Yo sé un poquito de español." ("I know a little bit of Spanish." This is usually accompanied by me holding up thumb and forefinger a few millimeters apart.)

Like the time I had a Hispanic family come through, realizing they had forgotten their card. They had been discussing it in Spanish, too fast for me to follow, but when one went to the desk to have their number looked up, I turned to the wife's mother and asked, "No tiene su tarjeta?" ("You don't have your card?") She launches into rapid-fire Spanish, and I quickly hold up my hands in a "slow down" gesture and tell her I only know a little bit of Spanish. To her credit, she apologized ("Oh! Lo siento!") and fell silent.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Also had a woman caller once ask me, "Youuuu spik ehbanni?" I'm pretty sure she was asking if I spoke Spanish but couldn't pronounce the English name of the language, so it might have been, "You speak Espani?" But for the life of me, I would have sworn she asked if I spoke "Bunny." I had to tell her, "No, I don't speak Bunny." She hung up on me without another word.

I heard this a lot when I worked at a call center. There was a separate spanish customer service line but some folks would end up hitting up first. The usual inquiry was either "You speak-a spanish?" or "someone who speaks a-spanish?" with a heavy accent.