Kerre Woodham: A new language barrier

Anyone who's travelled overseas to a country where English is not the first language will appreciate the frustrations of trying to communicate. After four days in Paris, dredging up the dusty remnants of my schoolgirl French, and assembling it with limited success into stilted sentences, I was shattered. Mercifully, the French are used to foreigners mangling their mother tongue. It must be like living in endless episodes of Allo Allo. They were kind and helpful and didn't treat me like an idiot even though I sounded like one. It's infuriating to be reduced to such a simplistic level of communication.

So when I heard about the manager of the Grey Lynn Foodtown forbidding staff, on their lunch breaks, from communicating in their own languages in the presence of any other person from another country or culture, I couldn't believe it. English must be spoken at all times on the shop floor, which I suppose is understandable, but to continue that edict through the tea breaks and lunch breaks seems ridiculous.

Just as a bit of background, for those of you who don't know it, the Grey Lynn Foodtown is a marvellous place. The staff are a mirror of the Grey Lynn community. There are Samoans, Maori, Tongans, Europeans, Somalis, Indians, Chinese - you name it, you'll find it at Foodtown.

And lovely people they are too. Helpful, full of personality - it's more an experience than a chore to shop there. Martha and her friends who operate the checkout counters sit behind those tills like queens on their thrones. They are gorgeous - immaculately groomed, generally with a magnificent example of a hibiscus behind their ears.

The Grey Lynn Foodtown used to embody all that was good about living in a multi-cultural community. I say used to, because I can't believe the pettiness of this memo from the store manager.

Apparently, some people felt they were being talked about and management have decided to pander to the neuroses of these spineless, craven individuals. Obviously, if people suddenly switch to another language in the middle of a conversation to deliberately exclude another, that's plain rude. But how often does that happen and who cares anyway? And do you really need the heavy hand of management to sort it out? It's all terribly puerile.

Many of the people working in supermarkets in this city are not using all of their brain power. And many of them don't have English as a first language. They're pretty good, but sometimes their English is heavily accented or fairly basic. To be treated with condescension or contempt by badly brought up customers would be difficult. Especially when you're a highly educated intelligent individual.

The relief to be able to switch off for half an hour and communicate with someone else who understands you, who can appreciate the subtleties and nuances of your conversation, must be tremendous. But now that's being denied the lovely folk of Grey Lynn Foodtown because management are caving in to the insecurities of mono-linguists.

This issue made for great talkback debate but of course the debate was much more about immigration and cultural diversity than lunchroom spats.

The sooner we realise we live in the Asia Pacific region the better off we will be.