New law forces foreigners to learn Austrian customs

LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ^ | January 26, 2003 | By Michael Leidig

[Indy Pendance]

VIENNA, Austria

[jimtorr]

Even the bureaucracy has a point. It's a way of ensuring that everyone has a job."

Well, there you go, then.

This must be the reason for the new laws. There have been too many English language and civics teachers out of work.

[imawit]

More power to them. If you want to be on the same team and get all of the benefits ... you need to wear the uniform and act like a team member.

I'm sure the requirements are not THAT difficult.

Over here in the US, we do the opposite. If you can do a couple of criminal things like ... sneak in, lie and get some ID, lie and get some paying work for less than or more than the minimum wage, get some multilingual programs going that help you out specifically and no one else, etc., etc., you can stay here permanently.

[ladyjane]

Good idea. The other day I was traveling in New Jersey, in the affluent suburbs. I stopped at *four* places. No one in any of the establishments could speak English much less tell me who was buried in Grant's Tomb.

[RightWhale]

Our staff have no time to learn German; we have no need for it.

What if they happen to hire local people? What if the staff wants to participate in the local culture? What if the staff wants to go shopping?

Koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen? It's remarkable that the station attendant pumping gasoline into your Mercedes speaks English better than you do. He also speaks French, Dutch, Latin, and Spanish. How did that happen?

[madrastex]

Nicolas Duke, the British area manager for a leading medical equipment supplier in Vienna, said the new law is absurd. He added, "If Vienna wants to be a center for corporations as well as providing access to the newly emerging markets in Europe, then there should be an easing of residence legalities.

"Much business is done in Vienna between America and the East European countries, but the people carrying out that business have no time to learn German, no need to speak it and no wish to be forced back to school."

Thomas Hainlen, the American chief of personnel with IBM, said: "People who work here in our Vienna headquarters speak only English at work. Our staff have no time to learn German; we have no need for it. The law is a waste of time."

I wonder if they speak s-l-o-w-l-y and L-O-U-D-L-Y when they interact with the locals?

[CyberAnt]

Yeah, but they know the word DEMOCRAT - and they know how to VOTE!!

[gd124]

LOL, exactly!

Their arrogance astounds me. I wonder if they'd feel the same way if the situation was reversed?

[AnAmericanMother]

Anybody who goes into a country and is too arrogant or isolated to learn the language and customs is storing up trouble for himself on down the road.

I saw this when I lived in Germany in the 70s. I lived in the community and spoke German -- and I was treated far differently from certain women and teenagers on Army bases who couldn't be bothered to learn even the German for "Bitte" and "Vielen Dank," let alone the local customs.

And it wasn't an anti-American thing. I look as un-German as anybody you can think of -- a small dark Irishwoman in appearance, wearing clearly American clothes although speaking German with (I am told) a heavy upcountry Austrian accent, which must have confused them a bit.

I could easily carve 100 hours out of the time I spend Freeping . . . . :-D