New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: How to deal with multiple working languages in the workplace?

Ask HN: How to deal with multiple working languages in the workplace?
3 by hxugufjfjf | 1 comments on Hacker News.
I am a non-leader position a IT security consultancy company in a country in Europe. Our department is around 35 people, where about half is now hired from around Europe and the US, and have moved here. I am from this country, and English education is decent here, so we have all defaulted to (broken) English as the working language. However, we currently have the following challenges: - What should be our working language? English, or should everybody have to learn the native language? Those that would, will not be able to have a technical discussion with a customer or write a report in the language for probably 1-2 years anyway. - The native english speakers in the department have a major advance language wise, and "eat us up" in technical discussions, because most of us non-native english speakers can't convey the same arguments as fluently as them. - Non-native english and non-native struggle with not being fluent in either of the working languages. - Serious department discussions and meetings in (broken) English often lead to confusion and misunderstandings. We've seen an significant increase in personnel conflicts primarily because of poor use of language, or misunderstandings of it. And several remain unresolved because we in reality are working with 5-10 different languages and cultures.