Bangor KFC worker 'told not to speak Welsh to customers'

[geardaddy]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-49024203
BBC News

A student working at a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in Bangor has said she was told by a supervisor not to talk to customers in Welsh.

Ceri Hughes, from Felinheli, Gwynedd, said she was being trained to use the till when the incident happened.

The 27-year-old, who studies at Bangor University, has since quit her part-time job.

KFC said it wanted its team members to speak the language "they and our guests feel comfortable with".

It added: "At KFC, we all speak the same language - that of our love for original recipe chicken."

Ms Hughes said that during the incident on 28 June, the supervisor told her she must take every order in English as she was being trained by an English-speaking person.

"I then spoke Welsh with some other Welsh-speaking customers, and she came back and told me to speak English to the customers," she said.

"It's not acceptable that they've told me I have to speak English with customers," she said.

""The Welsh Language Measure 2011 makes it illegal for people or organisations to interfere with the freedom of people in Wales to use the Welsh language."

I lived in Bangor and Welsh is in common use. It's ridiculous that there is still such prejudice against a native language that is spoken as a community language.

[RockRaven]

1. You know what is bad customer service? Forcing your employee NOT to speak the customer's preferred

language even though they are fully fluent/a native speaker.

That KFC statement is mind-bogglingly stupid. They claim their policy is the EXACT thing Ms Hughes was doing and was instructed not to do. You cannot evade a factual claim with evasive pablum which, if taken seriously, condemns the action which is the content of the factual claim.

[utopian]

3. The rhetoric is like something from a bad 80's movie

A parody of the fast food business.

[Chipper Chat]

2. I'm going to start speaking Spanish in public wherever I can

Just to annoy the hell out of the trumppukes

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Yo tambien.

[Historic NY]

4. I've been to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

and I haven't got a clue how to pronounce it anymore. I know what it means.

"St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the fierce whirlpool of St Tysilio of the red cave"

[Stonepounder]

5. It took me a bit, but this Bangor is probably

either in Ireland or Wales and not in Maine. I wondered about why BBC news would be reporting on someone in Bangor, ME.

However, it is really dumb for an employee to be told not to speak Welsh in Wales. Where in the world do they get these 'supervisors'?

[geardaddy]

6. Bangor, Wales is the original Bangor (I believe)

This happens a lot in Wales. Companies from outside of Wales try to stifle the use of the Welsh language. I wonder if KFC would have the same problem in Quebec, a city that is bilingual.