Is it rude not to speak English in public in an English speaking country?

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The topic for today is “ Is it rude not to speak English in public in an English speaking country? ”.  Learning should be for life. Every moment of every day we are being presented with new and important lessons.

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Today we learned about “ Is it rude not to speak English in public in an English speaking country? “.  In all honesty, it depends, for the most part, no it isn’t rude that someone speaks another language around or near you. 

Thank you

Marilyn RC

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Is it rude not to speak English in public in an English speaking country?

Answer by Patrick Nakamura, (A.A. Sociology & Psychology, University of California). All credit goes to Patrick Nakamura, Thank you!

7.0/10

In all honesty it depends, for the most part no it isn’t rude that someone speaks another language around or near you. In fact, it is their right to their culture, as well as their right to privacy. I’ve grown up around Vietnamese and Spanish my whole life and yes at times I’ve been left out of concersations. Although, I was one of the very few white people in my school, and it was extremely common for me to be the only white person in a room, I’m no stranger to this.

However, I can recall instances where speaking another language was very rude and inconsiderate. One such example is at the college I attend, I had joined a film club on campus. Essentially, there were quite a few people from various backgrounds within the class: several black people, quite a few Asians, a couple Muslims, three white people me included and the majority were Mexican. Sadly, the teacher and the Mexican students were only talking and deciding things in Spanish, leaving everyone else in the room out of the club conversations. In this instance everyone knew English, yet, the professor over seeing the club and the Latino students in many ways didn’t acknowledge the other people. It’s an extreme example and I’m in no way saying that they are “bad people”, but it was rude of them to not take into account the nonSpanish speakers that spoke English, as well as the other languages other than Spanish.

Ultimately, most people left the club after several attempts to be included in the activities, my self included. I do think that an effort must be made to speak the language of the locals in certain situations though. Considering the majority of people regardless of back ground in America speak English, in a setting I just described it isn’t right to be exclusive. However, I think that language is a very beautiful thing and is very personal to those that speak them: it’s cultural, it ties them to their family, it is their first language so it is apart of who they are, and they don’t need to be understood by everyone because what they are talking about is non of our business. Also, I encourage people to know more than one or two languages, because if you want to understand them, then meet them half way. If you meet them half way the problem vanishes.

Reference:  Patrick Nakamura. “Are people being rude when they don’t speak English in public if they know how to and it is an English-speaking region/country?” originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

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