[adduncan]

The place I work in is literally a world-magnet for professionals. In one of my departments, you could walk in and here 5 different languages going at one time. (Spanish, English, Greek, Urdu, German--very occasionally Japanese, Swedish, and a dialect I can't remember the name of from Nigeria) But the only language that ALL of us had in common was English. So in order to simply function, whether in the clinic, or in the lab, or in the office, it had to be English as a practicality.

There's two areas where a multilingual standard can be a problem (keep in mind, I'm describing an academic hospital atmosphere):

1) In the clinic when dealing with patients. Our senior administration has gone around the mulberry bush a million times with balancing the "employees rights to speak whatever language they please" with "priority one is making the patient comfortable." Most of us at work agree we can't force the patient to be as accepting of our multicultural/lingual environment as we are (I posted about this in another thread....) Some people have just never been exposed to it and when they've already gotten the "you have cancer" talk, they have other things on their mind rather than multicultural correctness. So talking in a language other than English (or the first language of the patient) is going to make them even more scared and uncomfortable than they already are.

2) When there is or has been some personal conflict among an office group. This happened a few years ago in a department that was known for harboring "power mongers". Some people would speak a language not known to the entire group just to make their rivals uncomfortable. (I know this because I had a buddy translating for me during these little episodes.) If anyone complained, the guilty party would turn their palms skyward, roll their eyes and whine oh-so innocently, "But it's my RIGHT to speak my language....." In other words, they were exploiting their rights in order to trample on others.

Like I said in the other thread (I wish I could find the *&^ thing...) we have a VP of Diversity who is supposed to be a leader in finding solutions to the conflicts that come up when you have a variety of cultures, languages and customs in one place. Unfortunately, his modus operandi to date has been to run around w/ his hands in the air yelling (visualize "Special Ed" from Crank Yankers here) "Diversity Great! YEEEAAAAAAA!!!!"
If anyone expresses discomfort or conern about one of these conflicts (like mentioned in the first post, and in this one) they get a stern lecture about the value of diversity. Yo! Dude! How about solving the freakin' problem instead of sweeping it under that rug in your office???

I'm thinking it might take a Supreme Court review to firm up the regulations on issues like this.

</rant>

Adrienne
(home w/ a cold....ah---AH---CHOOOO!!!)