For the most part I think you should be allowed to speak whatever language you want so long as you aren’t speaking it with a customer, co-worker, boss, etcetera, that doesn’t understand it.

I personally don’t see any reason why the language you speak should be policed so long as you aren’t using it with people who don’t understand it, unless they’re saying illegal things, but even then that can be shaky depending on what country you’re in IMO.

Hardern hell to police

I believe “ah, claro, y señor puede chupar mis juevos con salsa fresca” would be a proper response.

Honestly, time to talk to HR who I’m sure would have a quiet word with this manager.

This sounds like bullying, triggered by racism/xenophia/paranoia or just plain bigotry. And yelling at people? That’s terrible too.

Seems like a horribly xenophobic policy. Honestly a red flag.

I personally speak Spanish and French at work, in addition to obviously English. Work is the only place I really get to practice speaking French, and I take any chance I can to speak Spanish since I don’t want to lose it

I’m trying to figure out why a manager would assume that people speaking in Spanish are doing it to have a nefarious, malicious secret code, when Spanish is the fourth-most widely spoken language on the planet, and is not a difficult second language for English speakers to start picking up comprehension with.

If I wanted an evil secret code, wouldn’t I pick something far more obscure?

I mean, foreign languages can and sometimes are used to talk shit about people without them knowing. Speaking English in a non-English place is rude for that reason as well, to make it less bait-y.

If even brief, well-explained excursions into Spanish are punished, that’s ideology or personal paranoia, though.

It sounds like you’re dealing with a multinational company.

There may be value in having all employees operate in the company’s ligua franca over a better language as it provides practice to employees to function in the common language.

It may be easier for you to function in Spanish now, but you may have to interface with employees in the future where they know English and not Spanish.

How do you help those who can’t speak Spanish?

Personally, assuming its the local language, I’m fine with the idea.

People who are multilingual don’t always seem to get how it looks/feels for monolingual people – but it’s a way of excluding them from participating in whatever the conversation is. I think back to a camping trip described by an X with her friends, where in most of the group spoke english and chinese – except my X, who only spoke english. Because one or two in the group were more fluent in Chinese, for most of the weekend the vast majority of conversation was in Chinese, which really drove home how isolating / alienating it can be to be the person left out. You’re basically being pre-excluded from a conversation, just to make it easier for communication with someone else – your basic participation is less important than the other person’s ease of communication. My X had no concern about them “talkin bout her behind her back” or anything, they were all friends, but she finally understood how it comes across.

While the majority of the work force may speak another language, the “main” language in a country is to me, meant to serve as a default for business. If I were multilingual, working in a foreign non-english country, I’d expect any business I worked for to require me to use their local language. Even more, when it comes to supervisors/team leads, hearing the conversations can also help you target potential issues – like if you overhear a team member teaching something incorrectly. So there’s a potential business liability type reason to make sure that all team members, especially oversight, can understand what’s getting said if it pertains to the business.

Maybe this person is an asshole and has the reasonable expectation that people will say rude things about them if they can’t understand what they are saying.

At the break table talking another language, no problem. Needing it to be able to understand their job, problem. Unless your clients are mostly Spanish it is their needs that are being overlooked. They need someone fully competent in an official language. If nurses revert to Spanish when they don’t understand things, then their manager doesn’t know what it is that they are having a problem with, unless someone is translating for her. She could end up in trouble for putting someone on a task that they are not able to do. I don’t immediately see it a a racist problem (although it could be) but a work safety problem.

Here I am thinking that it would be sick to have more multilingual coworkers. I’m struggling through learning the basics of a couple second languages (not complaining, it is what it is and I’ll get there eventually). So its nice to have a native or fluent speakers around to help communicate with someone who doesn’t speak english that well. Or at all. At work our english-speaking offices expect people who are stationed there to be able to speak English, or to learn it if they don’t. But it’s not mandatory to speak it in-office. Usually it’s just faster for people to speak other languages with non-english locations or ESL people. Honestly its usually it’s the other way around, with people in other places learning English to talk with us, but that doesn’t always work out well. Its nice to be able to do both.

Your manager sounds sheltered and unprofessional, to say the least. I hope HR gets involved (unless they’re racists too…)

If you’re scared of another language it just means you’re a puta gordo

It seems like a combination of racism (I bet they wouldn’t get worked up over two Norwegians communicating in their native language) and petty managerial tyranny.

Charge nurses and power tripping, name a more iconic duo.