The Ethnic Curse, assignment was "Do you find it offensive if employees in a customer service position are unable to communicate with their customers due to a language barrier?

Essay by happy_bubblesUniversity, Master'sA+, April 2006

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The United States is a melting pot of many different nationalities. Because the immigrants came with strong and very divergent individualistic convictions they easily mingled into the local mix to find their place among new friends. They settled in communities based on their ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The lack of available academic resources in these small communities has resulted in a variety of different languages both spoken and written. This being said, this country also has many people who speak different languages other than English, our native language. When service personal speak a language other than English, or have poor English, it often poses a problem for customers. This problem leads to customer dissatisfaction because the customer's needs and wants are often lost in the translation. I am a strong believer that when someone works in the service industry, they need to speak the native language, English.

As a small child, I remember my father speaking to his parents in Hungarian.

My grandfather learned to read, write and speak English, but my grandmother could only speak a little English. My grandmother would sit in front of the television for hours, with the sound muted, because she could not understand what was being said. For years, I could remember my mother telling me I learned to speak and understand Hungarian before I could speak or understand English. Like so many immigrants in the pre-WWII era, my grandparents settled in a community which other Hungarians resided. In later years, they moved from their small town of Duncanwood Ohio (the town no longer exists), east of Cadiz, to the Cleveland area, namely Buckeye Road area. The businesses on Buckeye Road were fluent in Hungarian, and if my memory serves me, the English used was difficult to understand. In 1964 my parents moved to...