How many languages do you speak.

Working in a multilingual office is fun and trying at times. Canada has two official languages English and French. Our head office and parent company is in Montreal Quebec thus primarily French speaking. I am in Calgary we speak English.

The bulk of our communication is via email, and occasionally by phone. Sometimes very simple problems get exacerbated by the language barrier and what I call the one word email. This is a phenomenon that exists in most offices where you receive a reply to a lengthy email with one word in it, sometimes followed by more than one exclamation point.

There is a school of thought that suggests that the number of exclamation points you type in a row is directly proportional to how insane you are. One is considered the correct amount for all occasions, 2 is ok for making a point. But not exactly correct. 3 is a gray area, too many to be an accident, maybe an indication of over excitement. 4 or more is a red light a siren indicating that you are on the verge of going off the deep end. 

I grew up in England which has more languages and local accents that sound like different languages than you can count.  I have a good ear for English accents and can switch dialects quite quickly. My father spoke English and Gordie. Gordie is a dialect spoken in the Tyneside area of Newcastle. I won’t even begin to explain how it sounds. You just have to hear it.

I only speak English, although I joke sometimes that I speak English, Canadian and American. On a trip to visit my wife’s family in California I joked that I had picked up a “How to speak American” book on tape to learn the language. I then would ask them if they could tell by the missing “U” in colour, and favour. It turns out my copy of Microsoft Word is using its American dictionary. As it is trying to tell me I have spelled those words incorrectly. My wife is lucky, she speaks English and French. She went through the French Immersion program in Ontario. Speaking more than one language is a great thing to have on your resume. I am happy with English though. I never need to use subtitles when watching Trainspotting and Snatch.