Not as a sommelier but a wine waiter and no, my English was not rudimentary but I did not have much practice at speaking so I had very hard time on the phone(I guess I was used to do lips reading?).
There are also roles that require almost no interaction with the guest and these roles were filled with immigrants that barely speak any English. Roles like bringing the plates or collect the empty glasses and dishes.
Also, it's not like they had much choice, In these 4 months I haven't met a single British person as a colleague but Spanish, Italians, French, Bulgarians, Romanians, Iranians, Brazilians, South Africans, Kiwis and of course a lot of Australians.
The pay was just above the minimum wedge. Later I actually built an app to help these agencies organize their workforce but it turned out that they were happy with Excel, e-mails and Whatsapp.
There are also roles that require almost no interaction with the guest and these roles were filled with immigrants that barely speak any English. Roles like bringing the plates or collect the empty glasses and dishes.
Also, it's not like they had much choice, In these 4 months I haven't met a single British person as a colleague but Spanish, Italians, French, Bulgarians, Romanians, Iranians, Brazilians, South Africans, Kiwis and of course a lot of Australians.
The pay was just above the minimum wedge. Later I actually built an app to help these agencies organize their workforce but it turned out that they were happy with Excel, e-mails and Whatsapp.