I did the worst ever imaginable thing by being accommodating.
Okay, so backstory:
I work in a medical office in a city that has a ton of people from all walks of life, from every corner of the globe. So, we have a large staff of fluently bi/tri-lingual people and (suprisingly, Iām one of the few who only speaks one language :( but whatevs). Our computer system even offers text/phone/email reminders in Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, German and Italian.
So, my first week in the pediatric side, we have a mom with 3 kids come in. Only speaks Spanish to one of our front desk staff. Speaks Spanish the entire appointment. When I am double checking our appointment reminders at the end of her childrenās appointments, she only speaks Spanish through the front desk staff member who is training me.
Okay, so I double check with the trainer to confirm we are sending the reminders in Spanish.
The lady agrees to reminders in Spanish.
Come to today, (a few weeks later) she speaks English to me. Nice, this lady speaks two languages! Good for her! Thatās awesome.
She complains that she didnāt receive the appointment reminders. No big deal. I double confirm the phone number, tinker around to the extent of my access to that portion of the system. And then I ask, āAnd, just to confirm, you wanted the reminders in Spanish?ā
āUh, no. Why would you assume I want it in Spanish? I donāt want it in Spanish. Who told you to put it in Spanish?ā
So, I say, āOh I apologize for the mix up. Would you prefer it in English or another language?ā
She just keeps ranting. āI never said to put it in Spanish! I could be Indian. I could be any type of brown person but YOU *jabs her finger in the air in my direction* assumed I need everything in Spanish. I want everything in English. I canāt believe you would do this. Why do this?ā
I calmly reply, āIt it a service we offer to patients who arenāt fluent in English. We be so disappointed if a patient felt excluded from the healthcare process because of something as trivial as a language barrier. We have so many staff members who speak multiple languages, but we want our care to extend to the written word for our patients.ā
And she just harrumphed at me and said, āIāll speak to your supervisor about the kind of staff theyāre hiring here at my next appointment. I canāt believe theyād have someone like you on the staff.ā and walked out, snapping at her children in Spanish. And the entire time, she spoke with a heavy Spanish accent.
You canāt win them all.
(Fyi, my mom is fluent in Spanish and never taught me. I ended up taking Spanish in college, but I am not confident in my vocabulary to hold a conversation. I can understand the gist of Spanish conversations held around me, so Iām not 100% completely clueless.)
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