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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are they sharing information that you are required to know for business purposes? If not, MYOB. If they are, ask that they speak English. Done.[/quote]

Wrong. They are on the business's premises, and the language of the business is the shared language, in this case, English.

OP, I used to work in a large international organization. We had people from dozens of countries in and out of the office all the time. No one would ever dream of speaking their native language in the office, even if they were speaking to another person from the same country. It would be considered the height of bad manners. If it HAD to be done, it was done with apologies all around, and very briefly. I once saw a Tanzanian gentleman gently correct an intern who tried to practice her Swahili with him, saying he would love to talk with her, but it would be inappropriate to speak Swahili in the company of so many colleagues whose foreign language skills (and we all have them) didn't include it. [/quote]

Oh, puh-lease. I also worked for a large international organization - and overseas. Having small personal conversations in a shared language is fine. Discussing business in another language that excludes others is not. Evesdropping on personal conversations is rude, regardless of the language in which it's spoken. I speak French and when I worked in England I met a few co-workers who spoke French. We sometimes exchanged morning pleasantries in French. Would OP need to know what I was saying? Would it really matter to her that we said we enjoyed our weekends?[/quote]

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