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I worked with Brazilian colleagues in Brazil and while the official language in the office was English, we had a few older colleagues who struggled but who were
by wenc 4y ago
I worked with Brazilian colleagues in Brazil and while the official language in the office was English, we had a few older colleagues who struggled but who were brilliant in their field.
Rather than exclude these older colleagues, my younger English-speaking Brazilian colleagues would just excuse themselves (with my agreement) and dip into Portuguese to help everyone get on the same page. I felt it was fair -- why should we exclude expertise on the basis of language? Fairness works both ways.
(I later learned Portuguese so this became a moot point)
- atonse 4y agoI find these stories fascinating. I’ve always had a hunch that for a few colleagues in my career, the English barrier held them back and sometimes wished to experiment to see if just discussing a feature or algorithm in their native language would help (just for their tickets for example). Because while they spoke English it was clear they didn’t THINK in English. This looks like it would’ve helped tremendously.