1. "You're talking about me!"
Sure, I have a couple stories here and there that would make White People squeal with excitement for confirming that this indeed does happen, but for the most part, We Are Not Talking About You. Monolingual people tend to get hysterical and ridiculously insecure in situations where a foreign language dominates, but more often than not, the topics of conversation are mild, irrelevant to those concerned, and rarely correlated with malicious gossip.
2. "I feel othered, uncomfortable, and excluded."
Please. It must be awfully nice to only feel excluded for a couple hours of your 9 to 5 or a 30 minute manicure compared to the entire existence of a person of color. We are othered, uncomfortable, and excluded every single day and it's extremely disrespectful to hear about how your perceived struggle as a white minority is in any way equal.
3. "Why don't you just speak it at home?"
Community. It's simple really. People of color gravitate towards other people of color who share a native tongue simply because language creates such strong bonds. This is specific to Vietnamese culture, but it's not uncommon to be void of a social life outside of your immediate family, especially as an older immigrant. The everyday conversations with coworkers people find so irritating often serves as the only mean of social interaction for many people of color. To deprive someone of this breaks my heart.
4. "Not speaking English endangers peoples' lives."
Unfortunately, this is specific to and a far too common thought in the healthcare field, specifically when it comes to Filipino nurses who dominate the nursing world and often speak Tagalong in work settings. As someone who is surrounded by registered nurses, nurses in training, and general healthcare professionals daily, I can surely tell you I've never met a healthcare professional who is incapable of communicating basic and vital medical information to patients due to their lack of English. And let's be real here, medical terminology is foreign to most of us anyway.
5. "Sexual/verbal harassment occurs less in professional settings when there is a common language."
I hear this often and I'm not convinced there's any truth to it outside of foolishness and blatant racism. In general, people are just awful and I don't see the correlation between the two. Harassment in all forms happens rampantly and frequently, regardless of language barriers.
As a disclaimer, I completely acknowledge that the politics of language and the English Only movement go far beyond the workplace. The problematic underlying issues of a mono-linguistic country are definitely to be explored on Within Color, but I wanted to keep this post specific to professional & hospitality settings to clear up what I see as misguided thoughts advocating English Only work zones.
That said and preaching to the choir here, I truly urge those who have echoed one or two or all of the thoughts above to be more sensitive, empathetic, and supportive of people of color who speak their native languages in all settings, whether it be professional or casual. If you have any personal stories or reasons not included above for the further advocation of English Only environments, tell us more! We'd love to hear your experiences and perspectives.
