Ask HN: How to deal with my team speaking a different language?

I work in a FAANG office where a lot of people can speak Mandarin, but I'm not one of them. About half of my immediate team can, though.

One of my team members has a hard time with English, and started talking in Mandarin with my team members who understand it. And recently, my other team members started using Mandarin between themselves even when the one who struggles with English isn't around.

Sometimes, certain words clue me in that they're talking about our project, and it makes me feel excluded. Isn't one of the benefits of coming into the office is being able to overhear project conversations and be able to join in?

My manager is remote and has no idea any of this is happening. I don't want to be the asshole to ask people to speak in English, or make my manager be that guy either.

Is there a tactful way for me to handle the situation?

Clue in Mark Ztelburg. Or spin the die to change teams.

Did you ask them about it?

Request to work remotely like your manager.

I'd personally start from answering the question: "How does this directly affect me?". I'd ignore the feel of someone being wrong and try to understand the direct impact -- how much do you believe you miss out. Then act based on it.

> I don't want to be the asshole to ask people to speak in English

What's the office policy?

> or make my manager be that guy either.

It's their job. Yours is to communicate an issue to them, theirs is to see how to resolve it (if at all).