The Polish guy at work

[Chris S]

I work/have worked with lots of great Eastern Europeans. Does anyone else find they alter their English when speaking to them?

Irish travelers do that when they are selling stuff door-to-door. Instead of saying something is cheap they say "small price." They don't seem to realize that people in England speak English!

 

[Tim Hall]

One that has stuck in my mind is Legyen zep napod - Have a nice day

Years ago I worked with a bloke from Hungary. He taught me (since forgotten) the Hungarian phrase for stuff that isn't really acceptable on a family friendly forum. It involved horses and bottoms.

 

[ianrauk]

Years ago I worked with a bloke from Hungary. He taught me (since forgotten) the Hungarian phrase for stuff that isn't really acceptable on a family friendly forum. It involved horses and bottoms.

Nice I shan't ask her

 

[Chris S]

In that case they should say 'low price'.

 

[FishFright]

Irish travelers do that when they are selling stuff door-to-door. Instead of saying something is cheap they say "small price." They don't seem to realize that people in England speak English!

Or that's how they speak ?

 

[Chris S]

Most Irish people speak good English.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

"Yesterday I went to the pub and had a couple of beers"....would become "Yesterday I go to the bar and I drink several beers"

Is that very helpful? It might have some benefit in the very short term but I'd rather be speaking (and, as a learner, spoken to) normally as quickly as possible.

As you already noted, it creates confusion when someone joins the conversation speaking normally.

 

[Drago]

As a point of order, regardless of its geographical attributes Poles, by and large, do not like to be thought of as Eastern European. I know not why, but more than one I know, worked with or arrested has told me this.

 

[Globalti]

I don't use my French or Spanish day-to-day but in my export job I often find myself explaining quite technical matters to people whose first language is not English. Luckily I love writing and I enjoy word-processing so writing an email can be quite a lengthy process where I re-write and edit so as to make my email as clear as possible. When I see some of my colleagues' efforts I feel embarrassed - I once saw a fax my boss had written to somebody in Turkey in his usual pompous, florid language and she had found it necessary to get a dictionary and write the translations of some of his words on the paper, which is unforgiveable.

What I love about word-processing is that you can make a small change and alter the entire meaning of the sentence. The first version ceases to exist and a completely new version appears which uses the same number of words, or fewer if possible, but says exactly the same thing, much more clearly and succinctly.

I also tend to speak in a much clearer, less idiomatic English when talking with my overseas customers.

 

[nickyboy]

Is that very helpful? It might have some benefit in the very short term but I'd rather be speaking (and, as a learner, spoken to) normally as quickly as possible.

As you already noted, it creates confusion when someone joins the conversation speaking normally.

Very helpful, according to the people I am with. They often say that my English is much easier to understand than other native speakers'. I am communicating with them, not trying to teach them. These are people who are not in UK by the way, so they have no particular need to develop perfect English, just good enough English will suffice

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Most Irish people speak good English.

 

[bianchi1]

On the flip side, I have encountered the problem of my Polish workmates speaking only Polish to each other at work. Being a very busy kitchen it's important to know what's going on at each station which is hard when I know no Polish at all. As an example I remember a Polish waitress nattering on about something and one of the Polish chefs lobbing a starter in the bin and starting again. When I queried what was going on the waitress explained the customer had just informed her they were gluton free and the meal in question wasn't. This was important information I needed to know as I was in charge of the mains that evening and if I hadn't checked would have possibly poisoned a guest.

I find it extremely hard to ask for an English only policy at work without it coming over as zenaphobic, especially if they are just chatting with each other about their day. I do find it uncomfortable working a shift as the only native English speaker when I am excluded from all conversation, but I guess English ex-pats have been doing it for years in Spain, France etc so I can put up with it. (Or just learn a bit of Polish)

 

[Profpointy]

As a point of order, regardless of its geographical attributes Poles, by and large, do not like to be thought of as Eastern European. I know not why, but more than one I know, worked with or arrested has told me this.

They see themselves as central European. We (western Europeans) sort of shifted the Eastern Europe border to coincide with the iron curtain. Citizens of the old central european didn't really see it like that. It's a bit like londoners thinking The North starts at the end of Totenham Court Road.

 

[palinurus]

Absolutely. I spend a lot of time talking with people who don't have English as a first language. "

Same here, work in electronics production- often on calls with Korea, China, Phillipines.

Also our nearest manufacturing plant is in Hungary so I go there occasionally, with my phrasebook (otherwise would be even trickier to get a vegetarian meal)

 

[Milkfloat]

I work in a truly international company, a spend the majority of my days communicating with people whose first language is not English. Most of them have have English that is better than mine, in fact a few of them has said they would struggle to get a job for a local company because they don't know the technical terms in their native language. These are people who live and work in their native countries, but spend so much of their lives speaking English. We are all pretty much multi-lingual at work and start conversations in random languages just for practice, but we always switch back to English when we get stuck. I take it on myself to promote the empire spirit by using more and more esoteric English phrases, which seems to go down well. In fact I am just off to the 'thrice weekly' call.