Current Events > Food delivery workers who don't speak a word of English.

(+) Yeah! (+)

El TC es un seor malvado

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/47bf6c47.jpg

This surprises me because most countries I know, including my own, are rather strict on most positions requiring knowing the language, even seemingly small ones.
Because they know how important it is to speak to not only the majority of the customers, but also those within the establishment.
Individuals who can't typically can only get foreign language teacher jobs or very, very foreign companies with said country.

I didn't know America was that lenient with language requirements, especially with someone face to face like this.

Dikitain posted...

Like, geez, if you need to communicate with them for some reason just download a translate app. That is what I do when I travel someplace where I don't know the language.

That's because you are the foreign customer in those cases, not the employee.
Try applying for a job in a foreign country that wants you to know the native language to some capacity (See: almost all of them outside of very, very smalls election of jobs), but be sure to tell them, "I can't speak it much at all, but I can use Google Translate."

Go ahead.
Watch what happens.

Spoiler alert: your application is going right in the garbage.

Doom_Art posted...

It's started being a pretty significant problem in parts of the Canadian service/retail sector tbh.

This is true. I had to explain three times to the person at McDicks that I just wanted a sandwich and not a combo. I guess it's not really their fault, more on the store for hiring them tbh.

Your employer signed up for doordash so that they could increase their sales. Take it up with them.

Pittsburgh seems to have a ton of eastern European drivers who don't understand any English. Usually nice guys though.

-BrokenSpiral- posted...

This surprises me because most countries I know, including my own, are rather strict on most positions requiring knowing the language, even seemingly small ones.

Most people are surprised to learn that America is one of the only countries with no standards for this.

they gotta work on speaking English, you gotta work on reading English

weird that everything you have an issue with is resolved instantly... if you can fuckin read

what a joke

I agree but dont mind as long as theyre making an effort to learn our language overtime. Perhaps they just havent been here for long presumably? But then again aside from a few blue collar jobs gig work is probably all you can do here without knowing English no matter how long long you live here.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1c56f024.png

"Hey. I'm missing a bag"

*awkward laugh* "No English. Thank you." *leaves*

I get it's not all their fault, but we'd call it terrible service if an English speaking worker walked away going "Ok bye!!!!" as you are asking a question.

hockeybabe89 posted...

"Hey. I'm missing a bag"

*awkward laugh* "No English. Thank you." *leaves*

I get it's not all their fault, but we'd call it terrible service if an English speaking worker walked away going "Ok bye!!!!" as you are asking a question.

Agreed.

When I used to work in retail I worked in an area that had a large Eastern European and Korean population. I would say maybe about half of them knew how to get by having a basic conversation in English. At first it was frustrating because it was hard for me to get their orders right but most of them were regular customers so as time went on I knew exactly what they wanted as soon as they walked in.

The younger generation I understand because I assume they recently moved here and are still learning the language. On the flip side I would say a bunch of them were in their 50s/60s who have lived in this country for 30+ years and didnt know a lick of English. I worked a basic retail job so it wasnt a big deal, but I dont know how they would be able to go to the DMV or open a bank account or something like that.

Disclaimer: Both of my parents are immigrants who came here in their early 20s. Theyve live here for 40 years and speak English fluently (although with a pretty thick accent).

Dikitain posted...

just download a translate app. That is what I do when I travel someplace where I don't know the language.

Interesting. But in TCs situation he should do all that, not the person traveling someplace they dont know the language? Hows that make sense.

Verdekal posted...

If you have technology at your disposal you can dedicate time to learning the language instead.

Two things:

1. People who work in the gig economy at the sub-human "contractor" wages they get paid are hustling too hard to advance their education some times. Hell, we've got English speaking people I'm the labor pool doing that still unable to keep their heads above water while on the capitalism treadmill to improve their lives.

"If you're tired of eating so bad, fatty, why don't you learn to cook good food for yourself?" without ever accounting for how time intensive that is.

Just one of the many clueless privileges people have that they inflict on those who don't have them.

2. You 100% get that you made the "I'm not racist buuuuuuut justlemmesaysethinracist" topic, right?

DnDer posted...

Two things:

1. People who work in the gig economy at the sub-human "contractor" wages they get paid are hustling too hard to advance their education some times. Hell, we've got English speaking people I'm the labor pool doing that still unable to keep their heads above water while on the capitalism treadmill to improve their lives.

"If you're tired of eating so bad, fatty, why don't you learn to cook good food for yourself?" without ever accounting for how time intensive that is.

Just one of the many clueless privileges people have that they inflict on those who don't have them.

2. You 100% get that you made the "I'm not racist buuuuuuut justlemmesaysethinracist" topic, right?

They're still working a job where they literally can't and don't try to communicate with the customer. If someone spits on your food, is that solely the fault of the Soulless corporation? Or is maybe the employee slightly part of the problem in that scenario?

Verdekal posted...

What if they can't read road signs correctly?

I feel like you need to be familiar with these before you start driving, regardless of what languages you do and don't speak.

What kind of idiot gets going down the road and goes "wow a red octagon, let me read what it's trying to tell me to do"?

Babidi123 posted...

When I used to work in retail I worked in an area that had a large Eastern European and Korean population. I would say maybe about half of them knew how to get by having a basic conversation in English. At first it was frustrating because it was hard for me to get their orders right but most of them were regular customers so as time went on I knew exactly what they wanted as soon as they walked in.

The younger generation I understand because I assume they recently moved here and are still learning the language. On the flip side I would say a bunch of them were in their 50s/60s who have lived in this country for 30+ years and didnt know a lick of English. I worked a basic retail job so it wasnt a big deal, but I dont know how they would be able to go to the DMV or open a bank account or something like that.

Disclaimer: Both of my parents are immigrants who came here in their early 20s. Theyve live here for 40 years and speak English fluently (although with a pretty thick accent).

Id imagine its the same way that foreigners cope with that sort of thing here; they take a local with them.

I never got this. I grew up years in Southern California and I had friends whose parents couldnt speak a word of English and would have elementary school kids explain and ask for everything for them everywhere.
some of these people lived in the country over 20 years and still never learned to speak one sentence.

I dont get it, why move to a place and not want to at least try to learn its language? It would make every aspect of your life easier. Easier to get a job, easier to get help, easier to find a place to live, to buy groceries. Literally everything.
its ridiculous to have a 6-7 year old on the phone scheduling medical appointments for the parent refusing to learn English. Or even calling about an electric bill or anything. I child doesnt know anything about all that stuff.

this might sound bad, but I do wish when applying for citizenship theyd at least have a basic English test included just to make it easier for everyone.
im not saying to get rid of or stop speaking their language.
also that alone would drastically cut the amount of people flooding the border waiting months for a hearing.
but its absurd people walks for months straight, risk their lives and their childrens lives to go live someone where, but not once on those months of walking even try to learn a single word of that nations language

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

most Americans only speak one Language when it's common for people in other countries to speak 2-3 languages. If there's a lot of Spanish speakers in your country maybe learn some Spanish. It would even help if more Americans started speaking Arabic.

That is because how small Europe is and how many countries close to each other speak a different language. Also why is the onus on Americans to learn Spanish, hell I fight with English every fucking day.

dhampire1 posted...

I never got this. I grew up years in Southern California and I had friends whose parents couldnt speak a word of English and would have elementary school kids explain and ask for everything for them everywhere.
some of these people lived in the country over 20 years and still never learned to speak one sentence.

I dont get it, why move to a place and not want to at least try to learn its language? It would make every aspect of your life easier. Easier to get a job, easier to get help, easier to find a place to live, to buy groceries. Literally everything.
its ridiculous to have a 6-7 year old on the phone scheduling medical appointments for the parent refusing to learn English. Or even calling about an electric bill or anything. I child doesnt know anything about all that stuff.

this might sound bad, but I do wish when applying for citizenship theyd at least have a basic English test included just to make it easier for everyone.
im not saying to get rid of or stop speaking their language.
but its absurd people walks for months straight, risk their lives and their childrens lives to go live someone where, but not once on those months of walking even try to learn a single word of that nations language

The true issue begins when because of that the children can't learn the language either.

RetuenOfDevsman posted...

I feel like you need to be familiar with these before you start driving, regardless of what languages you do and don't speak.

What kind of idiot gets going down the road and goes "wow a red octagon, let me read what it's trying to tell me to do"?

Most of these people don't drive. They deliver on bikes, and at least where I live they're a menace to pedestrians, drivers, and other cyclists alike.

I'm on TC's side here. Not for the language, but how rude and inconsiderate they are both on the road and personally.

paerarru posted...

Which is why they show you their phone! So that you can make sure you're serving the order correctly. On their behalf, you're welcome.

Again, it's not their job to check the order. Their job is to take whatever you give them and take it to the customer. That's it. They don't need to know anything about the order, except the address.

No, you ARE pissed off because you can't cope with the demands of your job. Which includes making sure to properly serve your product, in case you didn't know, or hopefully you just needed a reminder. Next thing you know you're going to complain that they aren't helping you put it together.

Hey, if you want to motivate them, how about asking them to share their tip with you? I mean since you seem to think that you're doing part of their job for them. See how that goes.

it is actually their job if there are alterations to the order. Youre wrong and tc is right about that. Ive ordered enough food to know that if any issues arise I talk to my delivery driver and not the restaurant.

hockeybabe89 posted...

Or is maybe the employee slightly part of the problem in that scenario?

I think the driver is much less culpable and more of a victim to multiple systemic forces, including TC's racism, than they are to blame.

They're here. They're hustling. They're trying to just participate and survive.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt before a company that deliberately is exploiting its labor (both English and non-English speakers) and the TC's "fucking immigrants" level of contempt.

Barber102 posted...

it is actually their job if there are alterations to the order. Youre wrong and tc is right about that. Ive ordered enough food to know that if any issues arise I talk to my delivery driver and not the restaurant.

Alterations to your order are issues you take up with the restaurant. You talk to the restaurant.

If your order is damaged, that's an issue you take up with the driver responsible for driving it to you. You talk to him, then.

If you got your stuff in a secured container, undamaged, you shouldn't ever have to say anything more to the driver than thanks. And then tip him as he drives off.

Barber102 posted...

it is actually their job if there are alterations to the order. Youre wrong and tc is right about that. Ive ordered enough food to know that if any issues arise I talk to my delivery driver and not the restaurant.

Do you actually think Uber Eats drivers know how everything, at every restaurant, is supposed to be prepared?

Barber102 posted...

it is actually their job if there are alterations to the order. Youre wrong and tc is right about that. Ive ordered enough food to know that if any issues arise I talk to my delivery driver and not the restaurant.

And now you know who you should actually be talking to! So at least one good thing came out of the thread. Since your driver can only check so much about your order, like maybe the number of drinks they're delivering or something like that. Maybe, even that is not their responsibility, again so that everybody understands their responsibility is nothing more and nothing less than to deliver just what they're given by the establishment to the customer. I mean unless you're scared of being poisoned and you think your driver should start tasting your food for you, my liege?

Btw I agree that immigrants should be making efforts to learn the language, customs of their new country. For their own good first of all, since there are many situations where ignorance or even differences in some cases will be a disadvantage for them.

This isn't one of those situations. There's a reason why they take low skilled jobs such as these.

People facing jobs, which food delivery counts as, require you to know whatever the common language in the area.

Things like assembly line work can often be done without knowing the language.

paerarru posted...

And now you know who you should actually be talking to! So at least one good thing came out of the thread. Since your driver can only check so much about your order, like maybe the number of drinks they're delivering or something like that. Maybe, even that is not their responsibility, again so that everybody understands their responsibility is nothing more and nothing less than to deliver just what they're given by the establishment to the customer. I mean unless you're scared of being poisoned and you think your driver should start tasting your food for you, my liege?

Btw I agree that immigrants should be making efforts to learn the language, customs of their new country. For their own good first of all, since there are many situations where ignorance or even differences in some cases will be a disadvantage for them.

This isn't one of those situations. There's a reason why they take low skilled jobs such as these.

Are you arguing that the delivery driver shouldnt be checking that basic things about the order match up? If the restaurant hands you a pizza and the person ordered a burger thats definitely on the driver if that gets wrongly delivered

The delivery job definitely implies at least attempting to make sure the order is correct before you deliver it.

The US has no official language. Get bent

Tc is definitely being incredibly harsh against non-english speakers, but i dont think its automatically racist to expect somebody with a job that requires at least some type of communication, to be able to communicate what they need to.

The amount of anger and harshness from tc is definitely borderline tho

The way tc said it was pretty aggressive and felt like a complaint, but you should absolutely try to learn the dominant language if you move to a different country. It's a huge quality of life change and can help improve your life for the better. This goes for every country not just the u.s/English speaking countries

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Are you arguing that the delivery driver shouldnt be checking that basic things about the order match up? If the restaurant hands you a pizza and the person ordered a burger thats definitely on the driver if that gets wrongly delivered

The delivery job definitely implies at least attempting to make sure the order is correct before you deliver it.

That's a bit of an extreme example, but most restaurants seal the orders. Drivers are not supposed to open them. There's no way for them to know you got kung pow chicken instead of the orange chicken you ordered.

LeCh0nk posted...

That's a bit of an extreme example, but most restaurants seal the orders. Drivers are not supposed to open them. There's no way for them to know you got kung pow chicken instead of the orange chicken you ordered.

Yeah I dont disagree but that guy made it seem like theres literally 0 responsibility on the driver to make sure it looks accurate

DnDer posted...

Alterations to your order are issues you take up with the restaurant. You talk to the restaurant.

If your order is damaged, that's an issue you take up with the driver responsible for driving it to you. You talk to him, then.

If you got your stuff in a secured container, undamaged, you shouldn't ever have to say anything more to the driver than thanks. And then tip him as he drives off.

Actually on some ordering apps you don't. For instance if you use doordash and your dasher drops something off that's wrong you let doordash know and they'll handle it.

Their way of dealing with the language barrier is showing you the phone, which should take all of about three seconds to look at and point. I get that can be annoying to do when you're overworked, but "They should have to learn the language for a task that doesn't actually require much communication just because I don't want to take three seconds" is kinda silly.

At the risk of sounding like a bad person, I think if you're in a customer facing job in most areas of the US, then you need to speak English. I went to Home Depot one time and asked a worker there where the paint is and he repeated the word "paint" back to me and looked at me like I had three heads.

DnDer posted...

If your order is damaged, that's an issue you take up with the driver responsible for driving it to you. You talk to him, then.

I've actually never used an app where you're supposed to take it up with the driver, since they can't really do anything to resolve it. Doordash and Uber Eats have you submit the issue in the app, atleast.

justaguy3492 posted...

The way tc said it was pretty aggressive and felt like a complaint, but you should absolutely try to learn the dominant language if you move to a different country. It's a huge quality of life change and can help improve your life for the better. This goes for every country not just the u.s/English speaking countries

Yeah, this. I live in Los Angeles and we have so many people that immigrate here and never learn English. It makes it difficult for them to get things done when workers didn't understand them. And a lot of them rely on their kids to translate everything, which just stresses their kids out.

I'll never demand that people speak English though. Learning the language is for their benefit, in their day to day interactions. Not because of some bullshit like "we speak English in America" that racists were saying to Hispanics.

I might be opening a bag of worms with this, but it irritated me when I heard it. Curious if people will agree that my former co-worker is wrong, or if I am in the wrong for questioning it.

So basically, my former co-worker and her husband were not originally from America, but were perfectly fluent in English. At home, they spoke on their native language exclusively, including with their young children. I asked her how the children did in school, if they did not speak English, and she said thats the teachers job - to teach them English. She said it worked that way for each of her kids.

That really rubbed me the wrong way. A teachers job is tough enough, maintaining a classroom of 20-30 children. If the school has a specific program in place to help young kids learn English, that is one thing. But this was not the case (I asked her specifically about it), she said that the kids just would learn English as the school year went along.

I dunno am I in the wrong for thinking that this was not ok, since the parents are fluent? That they shouldnt put this burden on the school and the teachers? Im perfectly open to criticism if you think I am in the wrong on this one. I feel like it could be a topic where there are arguments for
both sides, and im just ignorant on a few things.

The_Popo posted...

I might be opening a bag of worms with this, but it irritated me when I heard it. Curious if people will agree that my former co-worker is wrong, or if I am in the wrong for questioning it.

So basically, my former co-worker and her husband were not originally from America, but were perfectly fluent in English. At home, they spoke on their native language exclusively, including with their young children. I asked her how the children did in school, if they did not speak English, and she said thats the teachers job - to teach them English. She said it worked that way for each of her kids.

That really rubbed me the wrong way. A teachers job is tough enough, maintaining a classroom of 20-30 children. If the school has a specific program in place to help young kids learn English, that is one thing. But this was not the case (I asked her specifically about it), she said that the kids just would learn English as the school year went along.

I dunno am I in the wrong for thinking that this was not ok, since the parents are fluent? That they shouldnt put this burden on the school and the teachers? Im perfectly open to criticism if you think I am in the wrong on this one. I feel like it could be a topic where there are arguments for
both sides, and im just ignorant on a few things.

Unless there's an ESL class at that school I wouldn't say it's the teacher's job to teach them English with zero foundation.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Are you arguing that the delivery driver shouldnt be checking that basic things about the order match up? If the restaurant hands you a pizza and the person ordered a burger thats definitely on the driver if that gets wrongly delivered

The delivery job definitely implies at least attempting to make sure the order is correct before you deliver it.

uwnim posted...

People facing jobs, which food delivery counts as, require you to know whatever the common language in the area.

Things like assembly line work can often be done without knowing the language.

No, delivery is not a "people facing job", not in this case where it's not the same company but a third person contract. In contrast to something like a pizza place delivery because that's part of the same company anyways. Maybe this is what's confusing people? I mean at least customers, TC should know better. Or else it turns out that the driver actually has been a paid employee of the restaurant all this time. That would completely change the situation, yes.

Why do you think restaurants seal packages before delivery? Or at least should be doing so.

Again there's only so much that the driver can check, and even that is not their responsibility, correct. If they catch a mistake in the order they've done the customer a favor. Even if they're delivering a burger instead of a pizza. Their job, for the third time now I believe is to make sure that they're delivering the right package(s) to the right destination. What's on the package is not their responsibility. It's the restaurant's responsibility to double check that what they're giving to the driver is just what the customer wants. Done btw, or else I'd need plasticine for the next post.

Tbh sounds like an incredibly awful system if alterations to an order only go to the delivery person and not the restaurant that's responsible for making the food lol just another way these companies put the bulk of the blame on gig workers.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Yeah I dont disagree but that guy made it seem like theres literally 0 responsibility on the driver to make sure it looks accurate

Correct. There is, most literally, absolute zero responsibility on the driver that the order is accurate.

paerarru posted...

No, delivery is not a "people facing job", not in this case where it's not the same company but a third person contract. In contrast to something like a pizza place delivery because that's part of the same company anyways. Maybe this is what's confusing people? I mean at least customers, TC should know better. Or else it turns out that the driver actually has been a paid employee of the restaurant all this time. That would completely change the situation, yes.

Why do you think restaurants seal packages before delivery? Or at least should be doing so.

Again there's only so much that the driver can check, and even that is not their responsibility, correct. If they catch a mistake in the order they've done the customer a favor. Even if they're delivering a burger instead of a pizza. Their job, for the third time now I believe is to make sure that they're delivering the right package(s) to the right destination. What's on the package is not their responsibility. It's the restaurant's responsibility to double check that what they're giving to the driver is just what the customer wants. Done btw, or else I'd need plasticine for the next post.

Bruh theres no way youre actually arguing that the driver isnt responsible for bringing something that is clearly wrong. If its in sealed packaging then yeah thats on the restaurant obviously.

But if something like the number or drinks or something easily identifiable either isnt there or should not be there, the driver isnt doing a favor by making it right. Theyre delivering whats supposed to be delivered

paerarru posted...

Correct. There is, most literally, absolute zero responsibility on the driver that the order is accurate.

so if the restaurant gives the driver one drink for an order that has 5 you dont think they should even attempt to straighten that out

paerarru posted...

And now you know who you should actually be talking to! So at least one good thing came out of the thread. Since your driver can only check so much about your order, like maybe the number of drinks they're delivering or something like that. Maybe, even that is not their responsibility, again so that everybody understands their responsibility is nothing more and nothing less than to deliver just what they're given by the establishment to the customer. I mean unless you're scared of being poisoned and you think your driver should start tasting your food for you, my liege?

Btw I agree that immigrants should be making efforts to learn the language, customs of their new country. For their own good first of all, since there are many situations where ignorance or even differences in some cases will be a disadvantage for them.

This isn't one of those situations. There's a reason why they take low skilled jobs such as these.

have you ever used skip or doordash? Because you never talk to the restaurant when you use their apps. It is up to skip and their employees to sort it out.

It's not the postal service employee's fault if your package is missing an item.

Smashingpmkns posted...

It's not the postal service employee's fault if your package is missing an item.

Drinks arent sealed into the package

Im not saying a driver is responsible for the order being 100% correct, im just saying that if something is obviously wrong like number of drinks or something they should not knowingly deliver something wrong