Someday in the distant future, a researcher will dig up an IBM warning pamphlet, and say the equivalent of "Eureka!", for here lies a Rosetta stone, only an order of magnitude larger. For these booklets contain every language I've ever heard of and several I haven't, some of which are just plain unrecognizable. The warning is only a couple of small paragraphs, but it fills twenty pages translated.

...just about everyone who moves to the US from India speaks English. I don't think ATMs in Mumbai use Hindi as their default language.

For a Washingtonian it's not all that surprising to see Russian as an ATM language option. I work in Spokane and Seattle, the two largest cities in the state, and both have large - and burgeoning - Russian communities. The Russia accent has become so familiar to me that it's beginning to disappear. I can only imagine how nice it must be for these neighbors to make such a transaction in their native language.

I wonder why it's so difficult to set a flag on my account that indicates so that I don't have to enter it every damn time.

I don't know about Russian and WaMu, specifically, but most banks have an idea of their customer's demographics, and target their services accordingly. That WaMu has introduced Chinese and Russian certainly tells you something about either their existing clientele or target demographic.

You didn't say, but it may also be possible that the language choices were selected based on the demographics of the machine's neighborhood. Russian here and Korean someplace else. Why not. It would make a lot of sense for WaMu to have specific language options, since they (and most major banks) are trying to increase the services provided by their ATMs, both to customers and non-customers alike, and targeting their language options accordingly might be one way to get a leg up on the competition.

What ticks me off about these multi-lingual ATMs is that you need to choose a language - every single time. Do the designers honestly belive that I'll choose Chinese one day, and Russian the next? I don't think so.

Once I've slid my card into the slot, the ATM knows everything about me. Is it really beyond the thinking capacity of the bank to allow me to choose my preferred language once and remember it?

Oh, wait. I implied there that banks have an ability to do something creative and useful. Sorry, my bad.

Hey, relax a bit. I don't think "Russian" mafia (so to speak -- ethnic Russians have nothing to do with it) is to blame here. On the contrary, there are at least two reasons why this was a smart move on Washington Mutual's part.

First, the truth is that we, Russians, are everywhere in the US now. We are not all that visible, as we look just like you, for the most part hold good jobs, are law-abiding, and the vast majority of us speaks good English -- unlike some other ethnic groups mentioned in the article. In other words, a wonderful demographic to have as your customers. Since you cannot go anywhere in the US without bumping into one of us, I am glad that this very fact is finally being recognized. Not that we cannot handle an ATM in English, but this is a good gesture.

Second, the Russian economy is one of the fastest-growing in the world now, and our politics no longer makes us feel ashamed. Russia is again a world-class power to be reckoned with and to do business with. In such a situation, catering to an ever-increasing crowd of Russians having money to spend and save doesn't strike me as a dumb move.

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to a very large Russian immigrant population. Down here in San Jose, our Washington Mutuals offer the choices of English, Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. This makes sense: San Jose is home to the second largest Vietnamese population in the world. Parts of San Francisco have very large first or second-generation Russian immigrant communities.

ps writes:

What ticks me off about these multi-lingual ATMs is that you need to choose a language - every single time. Do the designers honestly belive that I'll choose Chinese one day, and Russian the next? I don't think so.

What if you were a Chinese immigrant who started learning English, and at some point you wanted to switch languages on the ATM as you got more comfortable?

It's probably less the banks' fault than it is the software programmers', anyway. Usability issues should be up to the designers of the product, not the clients are who buying it for their customers. There's not enough thought given to actual usability in interface design in general, I find.

There are in New York.

I live in a ski resort in the Alps and we have TONS of Russians in town in all seasons. Russians are traveling -- and spending money -- all over Europe and the States nowadays. Good for them! I wish more of us Americans would get out and see the world, too!

At my Chase in Hyde Park (South Side, Chicago), the ATMs are in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Polish, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. When you put in your ATM card, you can either punch in the PIN code (indicating service in English) or choose other languages. The machine doesn't know it's you (and your language preferences) until then.

There are quite a few Russian customers of WaMu especially in the pacific northwest. I don't know how many times I've heard it in the bank lines and in the branches.