Spanish required for a job? (Montebello: neighborhood, school, college)

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by vdy1985

Being able to speak spanish will give you a leg up on other job applicants in LA. LA is Nuevo Mexico City for the most part, so spanish is pretty essential/useful.

So true. We speak both English and Spanish in my home.

[vdy1985]

Cool. I wish I could go back in time and slap my high school self and tell myself to actually try to learn spanish back then. haha.

[Mach50]

What a refreshing thread, I thought for sure it was going to turn into hispanic bashing (it would have in the OC forum).

I find that L.A. is not nearly as "Spanish required" as say Miami or even NYC/Philly.

It all depends on the job really, if you work construction or manufacturing you will probably need to know Spanish. However, even in IT/Engineering (where I work) I am 1 of 2 fluent Spanish Speakers and believe me it helps, I have clients from Spain to Mexico to Argentina.
If Raúl González calls from Columbia in bad english to discuss a project plan, my team calls me and we have much clearer conversation in Spanish.

Next I want to learn Portuguese to get those clients too .

I agree with the wonderfully open minded people on this thread, it is all about skills and if you can speak multiple languages it will only help you.

[BRinSM]

If you want to be successful in LA, there is no expectation that you must speak Spanish. However, if you don't speak English, you will be stuck working menial jobs.

I remember when I had a connecting flight in Miami last year, the pizza hut cashier in the airport couldn't take my order in English. I have never had this problem in CA and I've lived here nearly my whole life. There are plenty of people who speak broken English here, but you really have to speak English to do anything other than mow lawns or work in a kitchen.

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

If you want to be successful in LA, there is no expectation that you must speak Spanish. However, if you don't speak English, you will be stuck working menial jobs.

I remember when I had a connecting flight in Miami last year, the pizza hut cashier in the airport couldn't take my order in English. I have never had this problem in CA and I've lived here nearly my whole life. There are plenty of people who speak broken English here, but you really have to speak English to do anything other than mow lawns or work in a kitchen.

Yeah and just think people complain here about Spanish Speakers...imagine if they went to Miami? But honestly most Hispanics in Miami know English enough, but maybe not a Pizza Hut Cashier...

But like you said, you have to speak English pretty much around the world if you are going to get a high paying job. But in certain cases speaking German or Spanish or Farsi will help you out.

[K-Dawg]

i know of one place where you don't need to know spanish.... geno's steaks, in philly of course

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by K-Dawg

i know of one place where you don't need to know spanish.... geno's steaks, in philly of course

Yeah but you know what is funny? My wife just got a bilingual job offer (Spanish/English) for interactions with Latin American Clients...based in Philly. (Valley Forge to be exact)

[the one]

spanish in LA is a very useful tool. as are many other languages. being bilingual will open doors for certain jobs, particularly gov't jobs, or social service jobs. (side note: i love going to DMV or other gov't offices, which are a lot of times staffed by mostly black folk, and seeing them speak spanish! dont know why, i live for hearing black people speak spanish )
in other fields it is good to be bilingual as well, but the language of choice depends on the field.

i have many bilingual friends that represent the cultures of LA. bilingual in french/eng, span/eng, arabic/english, chinese/eng, portugese/eng.

i think it comes down to where you live and what you do. for example being bilingual in spanish might be very useful in a city like huntington park, but not so much in glendale where there is an overwhelming population of armenians.

interestingly enough i know people, including neighbors who are from arab countries and they speak enlgish, french AND spanish. the spanish is the most useful here in LA they say.
also a lot of the local mart owners (who are asian) also speak spanish. one korean in particular speaks spanish better than english!

ultimately i think it has a lot to do with circumstances and the surroundings.

but it is undeniable that being bilingual in LA is a very valuable asset.

[edwardius]

Los Angeles is the only place in the US I know of where the second language of immigrants often isn't English, but Spanish. You see the Korean shop owners who speak Korean and Spanish, but not so much English.

Its an interesting place.

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by edwardius

Los Angeles is the only place in the US I know of where the second language of immigrants often isn't English, but Spanish. You see the Korean shop owners who speak Korean and Spanish, but not so much English.

Its an interesting place.

There is a Korean girl in my office who was actually born in Buenos Aires, where here parents immigrated to originally. They now live somewhere around LA and she told me that her parents speak much better Spanish than English, in fact they hardly ever use their English she says. Considering the size of the Korean and latin communities in LA, I guess there isn't much use for English in their daily lives.