You KNOW I Speak English!

A major setback in consumer interfaces! That's the introduction of a new menu in ATMs. You stick your card in and the very first question you are asked is to pick your language. My bank, First Republic, now asks this question first thing. And United Airlines asks it every time I check in at Easy Check-in machines. (I'm pretty sure Delta and others do as well, so it doesn't sound like something one industry or one company has decided to do.)

Here's the problem: That card you stick in knows what language you speak as well as your name, account number, and a bunch of other data. So why does the machine need to ask me every single time? I suspect  it's the heavy hand of government regulation: Someone decided it was discriminatory to presume that every person with an ATM card speaks English. (We're not allowed to actually have a national language anymore, much less expect everyone to read, write and speak it!) But the fact that the machine can't remember which language I prefer and make sure that's what's presented to me is a technical crime of the first order. Another crime against humanity and human-ness in machines.

Comments

[Magda]

You know, this "language" thing is very offensive, especially to those of us who took great pains to learn to assimilate and learn English. You never see a "Polish" choice on those ATM's, and there are quite a few of us here. It never occurred to me back then that it is the rest of the world that needs to bend to my lack of knowing the language, I always figured it was up to me to actually learn to read/speak it. And it really didn't take that long to know enough to go to McDonald's, grocery store, or a bank..

My son, when he goes to Poland, attempts as best as he can to communicate in Polish, and has been able to buy food at a grocery store and go to McDonalds and even figured out their money, Zlotych, all at 14 years old.

Yes, great rant! Magda

[Emma]

I too am a devoted First Republic customer, and annoyed by the screen, but I hear from a reliable source that ATMs are less sophisticated than we think, and they don't know what language we speak. That said, I told my source to eliminate the screen.

[Stewart Alsop]

That mag stripe on the back of your card CAN know what language you prefer (and lots of other data), but the system has to be programmed to remember that and that's a lot harder than asking the customer to do the work every time they sign in. Typical IT thinking: Make the customer do the work instead of making the system work harder for the customer.