English only

[Tedob1]

""From the employer's perspective, the employer is saying, 'I'm under pressure to make sure I don't discriminate … but I'm going to have problems with productivity and collegiality if these groups go off and speak their own language,' " says Merrick Rossein, a law professor who specializes in workplace discrimination at the City University of New York's School of Law in Queens.
...
Is It Discrimination?
Imagine being banned from speaking your native language at work. That's exactly what an increasing number of employees are charging. But do English-only rules have merit? Some say yes, and the courts may fall more on their side.
What Do You Think?"

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/arti...11111909990001

[MrLinus]

In the US, with the constitution, the right to free speech, no matter the language, would protect them. I think the Supreme Court might sway towards the Constitutional. I don't know where the issue of productivity comes in if they speak their own langauge. If anything, I'd think productivity would be fine or better if they were left to speak their own language. It potentially means getting new markets that couldn't have been reached before.

The collegiality issue might be true but even if they spoke english, I wonder how much they'd be ostracized because they didn't speak english right, didn't wear the right clothes, etc.

Last time I checked, I don't think the US had an official language like in Canada. We have written into our constitution that there are two official languages: english and french. Language laws are critical here. Perhaps you might one day end up with "language police" like they have in Quebec today.

[rcgreen]

A business is not a public institution. It should be allowed to have its own rules
on matters like this. The biggest fear that local governments have about
bilingualism, is of being compelled to duplicate all their services for each language,
at enormous cost.

Language is ultimately more divisive an issue than race. People are more emotional, and implacable when their language is threatened, than anything else.

[MrLinus]

Language is ultimately more divisive an issue than race. People are more emotional, and implacable when their language is threatened, than anything else.

Bullshit. You've never been to Acadia French East Coast of Canada have you? They've kept their language for over 350 years now even with strong pressures to use english. Heck, Quebec has kept it's unique french as well (very different from Parisian french -- which is why I never understood why they teach Parisian french elsewhere in Canada)

It's culture that's the thing that feels threatened, not language. And certainly it's a cost but it also fuels a business: translation. I would think that the US would want to have an advantage over others by being to talk to them in their language (a lot can be lost in english vs. the original language especially with colloquial terms).

[Ennis]

Same idea with the Irish language, we have few areas left called Gaelthachts in which Irish is still spoken. The government sets up major incentives for Irish speaksers, eg students get free accomadation if they speak Irish, top of the range facilities for schools etc.

Its our first language but only say 5p.c. actually use it firsthand.

[RoadClosed]

quote:
Language is ultimately more divisive an issue than race. People are more emotional, and implacable when their language is threatened, than anything else.


Bullshit. You've never been to Acadia French East Coast of Canada have you?

Using your example, you point out that what RC said is true. Canada is very divisive over the language issue. They do treat it as imensely more important than Race. You get a vary different opinon of the entire issue in Toranto than Quebec, or areas bordering Newfounland, Yellow Knife or anywhere in the Rockies or especially the Yukon.

In Quebec city if you don't speak French you are definitely frowned upon. The duality law passed because of the divisive phenomena of language. Language defines cultural separation (division), it's the very essence of it. Mort critical than possibly race.

To have a succesful team you all have to be able to communicate effectively. I celebrate and love diversity, it's the spice of life - but it doesn't do much good when educational or technical teams fail miserable due to an inability to communicate problems and their invented solutions.

[moxnix]

I see no problems with anyone being bilingual, or even trilingual, ect. I also think that using a second language in and around a workplace is also quite alright, if common sense and courtousy also apply.
But, I deal with busineses all the time that use alot of latinos or mexican/spanish speaking people, who don't speak any english. This creates a huge problem some times. If you have to search around to find someone to translate for you, or even sometimes not be able to find a translater, it is a waste of time and effort.....and it is not productive.

[fourdc]

I had a discussion with the language department at my childrens' high school. They pat themselves on the back for preparing the students for the "world." The French classes had trouble in Montreal (learning continental French). The Spanish classes had trouble in NYC, they'd been learning Castillian Spanish.

I suggested that if a business student was ready for the world they would speak Mandarin Chinese. The biggest marketplace in the world. Of course in most of the US we're "Euro-centric"

[TheRepublican]

I say we make everyone in the world speak in C. ISO says it's international, so why not. Also, it has so many less ambiguities than english.

Imagine iterating the code for an internationalized resource DLL of the top of your head before beginning to speak, and having to debugging it once your done. Boy would that be fun, a 50,000 line sentence!