It makes me feel better. I don't see anything wrong with being required to speak the native language when you're on the clock. if i went to Japan, I'd speak Japanese. It's just polite.
You work in the Netherlands, I don't care if your first language isn't dutch, but when there's customers around, I think it's pretty rude to talk in another language they can't understand.
uhm... yes? he was serving me and talking to his coworker (which also resulted in me having to repeat myself 3 times by the way) in another language, while they both speak dutch, I don't think that's very customer friendly.
While I do agree that the whole repeating yourself multiple times is definitely annoying, speaking in a different language in front of customers doesn't seem to be a big deal. Especially if that other language happens to be their first language.
The only legitimate gripe you have in that situation is that the employee wasn't paying attention to your special request, not that you couldn't eavesdrop on their conversation more effectively.
"but it really annoys me when I walk in a store and I get greeted in English, we still live in the Netherlands people."
But you said there are a lot of tourists and a lot of non-locals living there who don't speak Dutch. How would they know what language works for you just by looking at you?
The rest though, I agree. It's annoying when employees ignore me flat out and carry on conversations like I am not there, no matter what language they are speaking.
I have a special paranoid place in my heart for when I go to a nail salon and I have no clue what is being said between the employees and they start laughing.... I just KNOW it's aimed at me. Even though it's not. :P
How would they know what language works for you just by looking at you?
They wouldn't. So the default would be Dutch. Not anything else. We have only one official language here, it's not that hard.
And for the non-Dutch speaking minority, it's easy enough to answer that greeting in the language they'd like to be addressed in, so the employee can switch to that language if she speaks it, and to English (our default second language) if she doesn't.
lol, this amuses me. I have NOTHING AT ALL against foreigners, but if you work in the service industry, speak the language of the country you're in, unless you have foreign customers. I really didn't think people would make such a huge deal out of this :/
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Seriously?
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But you said there are a lot of tourists and a lot of non-locals living there who don't speak Dutch. How would they know what language works for you just by looking at you?
The rest though, I agree. It's annoying when employees ignore me flat out and carry on conversations like I am not there, no matter what language they are speaking.
I have a special paranoid place in my heart for when I go to a nail salon and I have no clue what is being said between the employees and they start laughing.... I just KNOW it's aimed at me. Even though it's not. :P
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They wouldn't. So the default would be Dutch. Not anything else.
We have only one official language here, it's not that hard.
And for the non-Dutch speaking minority, it's easy enough to answer that greeting in the language they'd like to be addressed in, so the employee can switch to that language if she speaks it, and to English (our default second language) if she doesn't.
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