Hello!  Bonjour!  Guten tag! Hola!  There are so many different languages in the world and guess what?  I only know how to communicate well in one – English.  Now, I can understand the odd word in several other languages, but I am definitely not fluent to say the least.  What I have discovered is that the more cubicles I start listening in on, the more I wish I had paid attention in that second language class.

When I first started working in an office with people from all over the world I thought it was so interesting to hear everyone speaking in their own languages.  You’d hear a lot of Hindi, German, French, Mandarin, and even Spanish.  Sadly, it wasn’t long after that I realized it kind of sucks when you don’t know what is being said.  That is also about the same time I realized that when someone is speaking in their native language – they’re not always talking business.

The best example of this is from about a year ago.  I had just started working with a couple really cool people from India.  Every Friday there was this one guy that would get a phone call and immediately start speaking in Hindi.  I could hear him from my cubicle and I always assumed that he must be on an important work call.

Well, after a few weeks I started learning a few words in Hindi.  And like learning any new language I started with the important stuff – cursing and swearing.  Oh yes, I can call you a little bitch in Hindi, but that is beside the point.  Anyway, it was Friday again and sure enough this same guy got his phone call.  Well, this time when I was listening to him talk all of a sudden I heard a curse word.  Now, I understand that in some business conversations there are curse words thrown out there for fun – however, this curse word would have been the equivalent of me dropping the F-Bomb in front of my manager.

So finally the dirty little secret was out.  The Friday calls in Hindi - not really work, it was actually friends and family calling to chat.  I am happy that he took the calls, but I was happier when I called him on it and said 'I heard you dropping the Hindi F-Bomb'.  For those of you who are wondering, it is pronounced something like: mah-ther-chod.

Now that I’ve explored the fun part of other languages in the work place, a.k.a. learning swear words.  I do want to point one thing out.  If you’re in a group with even one person that isn’t going to understand you speaking in another language – speak in the language that everyone can understand.  It’s just common courtesy.  I’m lucky to work with people that generally always speak in English – but I know others are not so lucky.  I understand that if I was in a place where English wasn’t the main language I would want to speak English when other people were around that spoke it – but I would definitely not leave others out of the loop.

So, in conclusion, learning how to swear in over five different languages is great.  Using you fluency in other languages allow you to appear to be doing more work than you are, even better.  Talking in a group where not everyone will understand what the hell you’re saying, not cool at all.  People in the cubes need to communicate with each other; otherwise, I’m going to steal your pencils…again.