Another language thread....is it rude to....
 

I have a multicultural family. Some of my family members will speak to others in the prescence that do not not speak that particular language, laugh, titter and not translate. '"I" know what they are saying....mostly not bad but some is 'catty'....mostly it's the twits in the family.

I think it's rude as hell.....I've gotten crap for saying so....but I get crap from them on a regular basis as I am a dick.

What say the collective?

If it matters....german, yiddish, spanish and greek. The french speakers surrendered years ago.

Agree 100% Joe, very Rude......Wife has a daughter-in-law from Columbia.....Happens all the time.....Her and her sister on FaceBook in Spanish........Don't call them "Mexican".....Proud to be "Spanish"....My Bad......

Yes, that's rude.

Depends.

My mother drops in and out of German subconsciously. She means nothing by it, does not even realize that she's dong it.

If it's done purposely to talk some smack about someone else then yes, rude as hell and should be called.

Yep, if done intentionally, very rude.

The Bahamian Patois....that stuff kills me.....worse than ryme cockney....we've had Christmas dinners that look like the league of nations....

I use German words in my sentences to get extra attention, or sometimes just to be a wanker. It's quite good because people who don't know me think I'm smarter than I actually am.

My wife is from India. I hear all sorts of Klingon caterwauling. As long as I don't have to sign any contracts based on it, we're good.

I used to have a man & wife (now split) come in the pawnshop and speak Czech to each other.
It didn't earn them any discounts.
Jim

Rude. You may still be a dick, but you're right, that's rude.

Vraiment impolie... ;)

My ex's parents did this all the time.
I thought it was very rude and I was just a young buck at the time.

It's way rude. I used to supervise a diverse group in a laboratory. Chinese, German, Spanish. I finally had to lay down the law. English only in the laboratory and meetings. Lunchroom was free range.

My two NT$. I've been in this situation a lot; my wife is Chinese. I usually get my wife, or sometimes one of the other people in the group to keep me filled in. It's harder for a lot of people who weren't born here to speak for hours in English. They often don't speak English at home, so in a casual setting, that is more natural for them. A person who feels left out needs to establish ground rules with someone in attendance to do regular translations for him/her.

I think it's very rude and dealt with it as a kid when some family members spoke Polish to each other in the presence of non-Polish speaking family.

If someone talks in my presence in a language I do not understand, i don't get upset or take it personally.
I just leave or ask them to leave. They obviously wish to exclude others so why pretend?

My in-laws' first languages are Spanish and Russian, but they speak English in my house unless they are saying a prayer or teaching one of us how to say something in their original language.

If she's from Columbia, then she's north American. If she's from Colombia, then south American. If she hangs to her Spanish background, then she's more than likely low class.

Don't call a Colombian Mexican, that just shows you as an ignorant classless moron. Btw, don't call a Mexican Brazilian, etc. It has nothing to do with one set of people being better but respect their origin.

And yes, extremely rude if they also speak your language to exclude you unless they dislike you, at that point, all bets are off.

I would learn to speak Cantonese if you were in my family SmileWavy

+1. They could be talking about work procedure and the likes, be wrong and you would not know it.

My first wife was Thai (well, I guess she still is Thai)
My second is Philipina.
So I am around a lot of paca paca paca.
I am either too secure to think they are talking bad about me, or too arrogant to care.
Either way, it doesn't bother me at all.
But yes, I do think it is rude.
But again, I just dont care.

I agree JB you are a dick..
Oh wait and yeah the spanish thing is rude too ;-)