Archived Frustrated over language barriers

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We get alot of Spanish and Russian speaking people at our store. But most of them speak enough English. Another girl and I are fluent in ASL.
 
I'll add that English guests can be assholes, especially in Texas. "This is America, you should speak English." is a sly commentary I've heard many times. Pisses me off to no end. To assume one language is all you should encounter is outright stupid.

Especially in a country with no official language
 
I mean... I don't want to sound rude but try. In many other countries the citizens speak 2 languages.
This.
In many other countries children learn multiple languages while in school.
I'm in Texas, which has a high Spanish-speaking population (no surprise, it was formerly part of Mexico) & it drives me nuts hearing all the "This is 'Murica. Speak English!" comments. The language was here before you.
No hablo español.*
Gracias.
 
I didn't think about Google Translate. However Google Translate also isn't that great, you would not believe how badly it has mangled French to/from English every time I tried it. No, I don't know French but you should have heard the hysterical laughter from both my friend from Quebec and my friend in France.

Is there a translation program for ASL? I've run into a surprising number of deaf people.
 
I didn't think about Google Translate. However Google Translate also isn't that great, you would not believe how badly it has mangled French to/from English every time I tried it. No, I don't know French but you should have heard the hysterical laughter from both my friend from Quebec and my friend in France.

Is there a translation program for ASL? I've run into a surprising number of deaf people.

I've never had to use Google translate.. but for ASL there's websites to look up individual words but for actual translating.. I don't know. Pen and paper would be best
 
I've never had to use Google translate.. but for ASL there's websites to look up individual words but for actual translating.. I don't know. Pen and paper would be best

Yup the orientation video when your hired suggest pen and paper for the death.

I didn't think about Google Translate. However Google Translate also isn't that great,

True but as someone who did a whole orientation in Urdu it's close enough that they can sometimes figure out what you mean.
 
I had a crazy racist woman one morning walk up to me after she encountered our flow team (almost none of them speak English fluently). She kept saying something to the effect of them not having papers. After I caught my breath, I explained that we all have "papers" at Target. Good gosh, really woman. She kept persisting, so I let her know that I had no issues communicating with them, as I speak a half dozen languages. I think that I might have added, "Don't all educated people speak multiple languages?" She was on my last nerve with the "papers" BS.

Basically, use a walkie, "Team, we need a Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog, French, Portuguese, German, Vietnamese, Cantonese, ASL, Arabic, Farsi, etc speaker at Lane 7..." All of those languages are covered during the daytime hours at our store (and we are a little store). Not sure if we have Urdu covered. I think that we have a team member who speaks Hindi.
 
I mean... I don't want to sound rude but try. In many other countries the citizens speak 2 languages. Do what it takes to take care of the guest no matter the language. If you encounter this problem a lot then just learn one phrase "no hablo español, puedo encontrar una persona que hable español." Or more simply "no hablo español, un momento por favor." *team can I get someone to translate on XYZ123"

I've said no hablo espanol before (in my best attempted accent). Sometimes they get so angered that I can't even do the accent correctly lol
 
I have to use google translate often (Mandarin). I've had guests come in with horrible quality pictures on their phone of products they've had in China and just say "WHERE?!"
 
My most recent language barrier is between me and a deaf TM, and I can't speak sign language at all. Funny thing is, I'm hard of hearing too, maybe I should get on the train before shit goes down and I really lose all of my hearing.
 
My most recent language barrier is between me and a deaf TM, and I can't speak sign language at all. Funny thing is, I'm hard of hearing too, maybe I should get on the train before shit goes down and I really lose all of my hearing.

I sign with my guests (those who know it) as I'm fluent but it's kinda hard to know who knows it and who doesn't. 🙂 knowing any 2nd language is defiantly a good skill to have..
 
I usually use google translator for the spanish speaking guests, I work within a area where most of the guests are spanish speaking/arabics (and chaldeans) luckily I speak arabic-chaldean... so that's not an issue. currently learning spanish but if I do encounter a problem then I just walkie the tl or someone that speaks spanish. The only thing pisses me off about me understanding another language is the ungrateful guests that assume I don't understand them and cuss me out in their language(mine too but yeah). like ef off ..l.
 
Pen and paper only go so far for ASL. A native ASL user writes very differently from English structure. We had a Deaf job applicant once, and leadership called me into the office to help, but I was only a level 1 ASL student. Could barely explain that we would have an interpreter come in for his interview and he would need to reschedule. So embarrassing for everyone involved, at least on the Target side of the conversation. I'm sure it was super frustrating for him.
Now I sign better and I have helped a few Deaf guests. ( "Deaf" is the politically correct term, just FYI, capitalized as if it were a country)
 
Pen and paper only go so far for ASL. A native ASL user writes very differently from English structure. We had a Deaf job applicant once, and leadership called me into the office to help, but I was only a level 1 ASL student. Could barely explain that we would have an interpreter come in for his interview and he would need to reschedule. So embarrassing for everyone involved, at least on the Target side of the conversation. I'm sure it was super frustrating for him.
Now I sign better and I have helped a few Deaf guests. ( "Deaf" is the politically correct term, just FYI, capitalized as if it were a country)
Yeah, now that you said that, I vaguely remember that from my attempt to learn sign language. Grammar and syntax totally different, and no verb tenses as I recall.
 
The city I live in is about 50% Spanish speaking, so most TMs speak Spanish, but it gets really difficult for me sometimes since I don’t and there’s not always someone available to translate. We get a lot of Russian speakers, too, but we don’t have anyone that speaks Russian.
 
one of our TMs is deaf and is the only one in the building who signs. I can't understand a word when he talks (just sounds like grunting random syllables to me) and it's pretty tedious to communicate by writing on a piece of paper even though his written English is on point. It really makes me wish I had gone through with the ASL courses I started a few years ago. I didn't realize until then that it's a language in it's own right with different grammatical rules and whatnot, iirc the grammar and structure is closer to Japanese than English...WELP
 
Had a guy ask me for the location of something tonight...and I just couldn't grasp the last word he was using (the product he was looking for). Had him say it three times and all three times it didn't click. He just smiled, said "never mind" and walked on (into the store). Felt pretty shitty about it actually...I generally think I have a pretty good grasp of what most people are saying. I couldn't even tell you what language his native tongue is. *shrug*
 
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