Not very business-like…

My company has always been a very diverse company, staff wise. I remember there was a time when we could boast of “speaking” 10 different languages, which may not seem like a lot, but it actually is when the total number of employees wasn’t higher than 50 people.

Now my company has been bought by a big multinational. There are offices in almost every single country in the world employing hundreds of thousands of people and, although English is the official language to be spoken amongst its employees, it is now very common to hear conversations in other languages around me all the time.

French and German are the big sinners. And it annoys me. Oh gosh, it annoys me a lot.

I do understand that when two or more people from the same country get together they will speak their mother tongue. I have nothing against that. The Polish in my office have been doing it for a long time and it has never bothered me. When we had a fellow Spaniard in our office for a week it was almost natural* to speak in Spanish with him. (*almost natural, because sometimes Spanish doesn’t come out too naturally!)

However, the big difference is that I would never speak in Spanish with another Spaniard when there are other non-Spanish speakers around. Then I switch to English. Out of respect more than anything. Specially in the work environment.

What has been annoying me a lot is when I am in a meeting with French people and they switch over to French in front of me in the middle of the meeting, and not for just a sentence or two, but a whole conversation! It is SO RUDE! It makes you feel uncomfortable, out of place, wondering why you never took learning French more seriously, and if you’re a bit paranoid like I am sometimes, wondering as well if they are talking about you!

It’s happened to me twice now, and if it happens a third time I am going to file in an official complaint with HR.

On a separate note, Yes, I am back in the blogging world. I took a little unplanned break simply because life took over, and then I wasn’t feeling in the mood for writing, and then I simply couldn’t be bothered. But I am back. There’s more going on than crafts! (although I must admit that it is pretty much all I do nowadays! I love it so much!)