Jean in Newcastle Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I got my first piece of junk mail in Tagalog the other day. I get Tagalog and Spanish telemarketers frequently. Today I got a call in some language that I couldn't identify. I started to say "I don't speak. . ." and then just stopped because it didn't sound either Spanish or Tagalog. Perhaps Portuguese? (My last name is shared by speakers in all these languages.) Have you ever gotten calls or mail in languages other than English? Assuming that you live in an English speaking country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 No, I haven't. This is a very white and English-speaking area though. We have Polish food in the supermarket (because of Polish seasonal agricultural workers) but that's about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindy in FL. Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 No, this has never happened to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettyandbob Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I've gotten stuff in Spanish. My area has a lot of Spamish speakers. I don't think I'm targeted though, beyond the geography of my address. My last name screams English speaker. At work, my boss gets targeted marketing calls. He is the school owner so his name is on a lot of stuff. His name us obviously ethnically Indian. We get all kinds of calls from people with Indian accents pretended to be familiar with boss, asking for him by his first name. I general screen by saying "he's busy, can I take a message?" They never leave a message. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 In Spanish, but that is rare. DH's go to for getting telemarketers to stop calling is to start speaking German to them (I'm referring to the English speaking ones). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHASRADA Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Yes, we always get calls from long distance phone services in Arabic based on our last name. I hang up on them just like the English speaking ones :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Nope. I've known people with Chinese last names who get calls in Chinese, even though they don't speak it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 No, but I answer the phone in Tsalagi or Greek to weed out the telemarketers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Yes, in Spanish all the time. Our last name is very Hispanic (dh's dad is from Puerto Rico). We also get mail in Spanish and one time we had some evangelists come to the door looking for "the Spanish-speaking family on this street". None of us speak any Spanish past what we remember from a year or two in high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cammie Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Yup, our US phone line often gets telemarketers speaking in Hindi - totally based on the last name! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Our children's hospital was sending us all our automatic appointment reminders and scheduling reminders in Mandarin Chinese for a while. It was a mistake somewhere in their computer system, but I think it was related to us using a translator for a couple of our kids. How they tagged us in a different language when we were only using the translator for a minor patient at hospital visits and all other communication was supposed to be in English, I'm not sure. It took a couple tries to get it fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted December 20, 2014 Author Share Posted December 20, 2014 Oh, and I forgot that I also get a Spanish woman's magazine that I never subscribed to. it goes straight to the recycle bin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Yes, I have, but my area is heavy in speakers of Asian languages. I used to get a lot of phone calls in Filipino for a US to The Phillippines phones service, but I think they have given up finally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Yes, I get marketed to in Spanish occasionally. At one point my Pandora station decided I speak Spanish. I think it's simply my zip code, not my name or any of my behavior. My neighborhood has a lot of central Americans - one of the more concentrated groups in the city where I live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted December 20, 2014 Author Share Posted December 20, 2014 Oh, yes, Pandora and YouTube think that I speak Spanish because I like Santana. Mrs. Mungo. we get the "cheap phone calls to the Philippines" deals all the time. I had one telemarketer really ream on me (in English) about how we needed to call family over there more. A lot of the Spanish ones tend to be "how to send money back home to Mexico" deals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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