Don't take a customer service job if your grasp of English is nonexistent. There's one thing that can set me off for the entire day, and that is a phone call with someone who doesn't understand me and who butchers the English language. When I need help with something, whether it be a credit card issue, questions about a product purchase, or to place an order by phone, I expect to be connected to someone in the United States. I know, what a total racist! Imagine my surprise, when at least 2/3 of the time, I am listening to someone in outer Mongolia attempting to assist me. How the hell am I supposed to explain myself to you when you barely understand what I am saying? Basic English knowledge is not too much to ask when you work for an American company and must speak to AMERICAN people on a daily basis. How dare you get frustrated with me when I won't repeat myself 75 times, in 64 different ways just so you'll understand me? I have neither the time nor the patience to translate for you. It's not my job. When I ask to be transferred to an English-speaking person, don't get all uppity with me, telling me that you are speaking English and that I am talking too fast, have an accent or whatever the hell your excuse is today. Put an American on the goddamn phone and find a job that allows you to be mute.
Even in supermarkets, I am faced with border-hoppers at the registers who actually think that everyone SHOULD speak Spanish and have the balls to address me in Spanish. Really? I may understand you, but I'll never admit to it. Why should I? This is the United States of America, not Mexico or Cuba. When I visit your country, I attempt to address you in your native tongue until you let me know that you speak English, as well. And that's a visit!!! You live here, make American money at an American job, working for an American company, and you think it's perfectly ok to carry on conversations with your homies in Spanglish while assisting me. Guess what?! It's rude. It's the same as whispering. Only because you think nobody else understands you. I do, and I know when it's about me. I've actually called a few of you out on it. How'd that feel? When you live in my country, speak my language.
When my relatives came here from Italy, they made every attempt to learn English. They had to...otherwise, they'd be discriminated against. It may not have been perfect, but their English helped them survive here. Now, we reward these people by giving them government assistance, making the driving test in their native tongue...are street signs in Tagalog by you, they aren't here...and simply allowing them to exist and thrive without making any attempt at assimilating into our culture.
Living in the United States isn't a right, it's a privilege. Show some respect, or get the fuck out. Don't speak to me in any other language BUT English, or I'll say loudly and slowly, so you understand, "Are you friggin kidding me right now???"
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