Koke Posted 20 March 2009 Posted 20 March 2009 you should charge a translation fee! They pay me in Falafels and Samosas
stez Posted 20 March 2009 Posted 20 March 2009 They pay me in Falafels and Samosas that looks nice except for the tomato....... hey kareem, what's 'yeah i want salad, but no tomato' in arabic?
Nationwider Posted 20 March 2009 Posted 20 March 2009 Who needs languages - anyone can ask for a second class stamp...
Koke Posted 20 March 2009 Posted 20 March 2009 that looks nice except for the tomato.......hey kareem, what's 'yeah i want salad, but no tomato' in arabic? Tomato is tomato and salad is salad, you can get away with that La tomato wa-lakin shiweya salad.
stez Posted 21 March 2009 Posted 21 March 2009 Tomato is tomato and salad is salad, you can get away with that La tomato wa-lakin shiweya salad. excellent! i'm going to learn arabic, it looks dead easy!
Daggers Posted 21 March 2009 Posted 21 March 2009 Man says "the lack of toilet facilities means the bear defecates in the area of large tree density".
StanSP Posted 21 March 2009 Posted 21 March 2009 excellent! i'm going to learn arabic, it looks dead easy! Yeah when reading it in English .
Zingari Posted 21 March 2009 Posted 21 March 2009 anyone that can actually find a post office must have a good understanding of english
StanSP Posted 21 March 2009 Posted 21 March 2009 He's left his job !!!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/notting...ire/7956570.stm
BlabyFox Posted 21 March 2009 Posted 21 March 2009 What about someone who's come on holiday and might not speak English very well? I know when I was in Spain for instance and this approach was adopted I would have been screwed. I wouldn't have eaten for days if people in shops wouldn't decifer my arm waving. but its different if your actually living in the country. tourists are vital for the spanish economy too so they have to put up with it
MPH Posted 22 March 2009 Posted 22 March 2009 there are 192 languages in the world ( NOT including regional dialects) and 187 of them are spoken in England. Nearly 90 different languages spoken by the people of leicester. The last point is irrelevant, however, as this happened in Nottingham.
Thracian Posted 22 March 2009 Posted 22 March 2009 He's left his job !!!!http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/notting...ire/7956570.stm I'm not surprised. It was a stupid stance and one that was always destined to end in defeat.
Shrenchel Posted 22 March 2009 Posted 22 March 2009 He's right, if he can't understand what they are saying how can he serve them?I made an effort to learn Spanish when I went there two years ago (forgotten it all now though), so they should make an effort to learn English, especially if they live here. It's not like he's asking them to speak English all the time is it? Only while they are shopping and being served by him, so he knows exactly what they want. I'm living in Spain and have obviously made the effort as well, but it took me a couple of months to get to the point where I can ask for anything I wanted in shops etc without any problems. I would have been fooked in the first couple of months if the geezer in the post office had refused to serve me because of my hand signals and spanglish. I just think it's hard to differentiate between the people who are making no effort whatsoever to ever learn the language and newish arrivals who are are still in the process of getting to grips with it.
davieG Posted 22 March 2009 Posted 22 March 2009 I doubt this guy was ever talking about first timers or people buying the odd stamp, I suspect he was thinking of his 'regulars' who couldn't understand the numerous forms you need to fill in to claim or collect benefits.
Shrenchel Posted 22 March 2009 Posted 22 March 2009 I doubt this guy was ever talking about first timers or people buying the odd stamp, I suspect he was thinking of his 'regulars' who couldn't understand the numerous forms you need to fill in to claim or collect benefits. Of course but then it just descends into a farce. You've got a 'you have to speak English rule', but actually he's going serve some people that don't if they haven't been in the country that long, or if they really are trying to learn but finding it very difficult?! It just turns into this matey boy making arbitrary decisions about which non english speaking people he's going to serve whilst telling others to fook off.
Thracian Posted 22 March 2009 Posted 22 March 2009 I'm living in Spain and have obviously made the effort as well, but it took me a couple of months to get to the point where I can ask for anything I wanted in shops etc without any problems. I would have been fooked in the first couple of months if the geezer in the post office had refused to serve me because of my hand signals and spanglish. I just think it's hard to differentiate between the people who are making no effort whatsoever to ever learn the language and newish arrivals who are are still in the process of getting to grips with it. I get people I can't understand every day on the market, lots of them in fact. Both white English and foreign. It's not just about language. It's also about disabilities of one sort or another, both physical and mental. My wife finds it especially difficult being a bit hard of hearing and always passes these customers over to me. A smile and a few hand signals go a long way but most are regulars and, if you listen carefully, as time goes by it gets easier to make their words out. It's a challenge but I want these people to feel as comfortable at my stall as any others. Often people from the hostels come to spend their modest daily daily allowance on a watch, a lighter or some other relatively inexpensive item. It helps their social skills and their feelings of self worth - at least I hope so. Their money is as good as everyone else's and the hardest part is making sure they get value for what they are spending because they can be very insistent once they've made a choice. I always give em lots of flexibility, the right to change their minds a few days later or to swop one purchase for another. Again, they seem to enjoy this and what's the harm? If they enjoy their 15 minutes of dealing then I'm pleased for them? I provide a familiar face and somewhere to go where they know they're welcome. If people are going to work in a post office, a shop or on a market stall then they know from the off that they'll have to deal with all sorts. If they're not comfortable with that they should do something else.
Alexikokopops Posted 23 March 2009 Posted 23 March 2009 but its different if your actually living in the country.tourists are vital for the spanish economy too so they have to put up with it I know it's different if you're living in the country My point was that while it's a good principle a blanket ban of anyone who can't speak the Queen's isn't, in my opinion, the best way to go about it.
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