Why do we need to learn – you may ask?
I remember one time at work when the whole team were Vietnamese, and the photoshoot concept was inspired by the Renaissance.
When discussion was ongoing, some English words were thrown in here and there to refer to specific concepts, for the sake of convenience. As you probably know, every field has its own set of very common words that either are unnecessary to be translated into Vietnamese, or lose their fullest meaning in translation.
Amid the discussion, one opinion was raised all of a sudden:
“Can we all just speak pure Vietnamese, please? We have people who don’t speak English in here as well.”
A dead silence followed. The air grew heavier.
By the end of the day, the Creative Director asked this colleague to leave the team, with the reason being more foreign models were soon joining the team, and thus required photographers to have sufficient English skill to communicate and deliver the correct idea.
To my surprise, it turned out there were no actual foreigners added to our team. Then, what could have been the real reason?
Later on, the director gave it away:
“To me, it’s acceptable for someone to barely speak English but keep an open mind to learn, but I wouldn’t put up with somebody who asks everyone else to stay in place where they are.
The world moves on every next second, so asking the majority to stand still and wait for one individual is just RIDICULOUS.