ALT-4 Why us Employers should Require Employees Speak English
It should not be a prerequisite for employees to speak English if they are living in a country where English is not the first language of that particular country. Of course this article relates to employees in the US where English is the main spoken language. It is only natural to expect your employees to be able to communicate easily with each other in the same language as well as with management and customers where applicable. In this case that communally spoken language would be English. If some employees are speaking in a different language it could cause discrimination claims and bad feeling in the work environment. If people don’t understand what their colleagues are saying, it could lead to claims that they are being negatively discussed behind their backs. So to enforce rules that English must be spoken would rid the workplace of this potential issue.
If you live in France you would be expected to speak French, if you live in Korea, you would be expected to speak Korea, etc, you get the picture. So it naturally follows that living in a country where the national language is English you would be expected to speak and understand English. The road signs are in English, menus in restaurants are in English, daily newspapers are in English, children in school are taught in English, hospital admission forms, driving licenses, passports, pretty much all official paperwork and whatever else you can think of that’s written down, it’s written in English.
Looking at countries where English is not the first language. Say India, for example, the companies who hire staff out there don't necessarily need them to speak English fluently unless they will be dealing with people in English speaking countries on a regular basis. For example, it's not necessary to say they won't hire a daily cleaner who can't speak English but a call centre advisor who'll be on the phone to customers in the USA or UK most of their working day would definitely need to be fluent in the English language.
I live in the UK, anyone who applies for a job in my company needs to be able to communicate in fluent English, i.e. speak and write the language. It is an essential part of the job to have to communicate with other staff in the office, in the UK and our other offices in USA, Australia and New Zealand where, of course, English is also the main language.
Some people might think it's a bit cheeky for English speakers to expect everyone else to be able to speak English, say when you go on holiday to exotic climes, but like it or not, English is a very powerful language and is spoken the world over. If you didn't speak or understand English, would you even be reading this article?
