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In the US it is assumed that the "other language" is Spanish because Hispanics constitute the 2nd largest population. English IS the International Language of Business (look it up). No, the US does NOT have an official language (it is however assumed to be American English). US firms are quite different in how they word their job postings...if French was required as the "other language" it states that (or any other language for that matter). Many states are adopting English Only on state forms. This is a matter of requiring a second language to be spoken for labor positions. If one is to require Spanish, why not just require English to be spoken? It is, for one, a matter of discrimination, for the other it is a matter of alienation.
This is the confusion, the assumption is the two languages are English and Spanish. But they may be English or Spanish and Japanesse. Or what about that plant that requires German plus english, french or spanish for some positions? If you speak german & french your hired. If you speak english and german your hired for those positions, if you speak spanish and german you can also get those positions because the staff you work with speaks german and english or german and spanish or german and french.
We assume that its english first when it could be english second. The language of business is whatever languge they choose and there is absolutely no requirment in the USA for english to be any languge they use in the workplace. People and politicians make people belive that but truth is no busines would accept governement tellingt hem what language they must communicate in as some official policy. Don't assume that english is even a requirment of any job.
You're probably right, they need German/French speaking production workers down at the chicken plant to work the production lines......
The fact that the town the plant is located in has a large Hispanic population naturally gave me the false assumption that they probably wanted workers who spoke Spanish...
My point of course is that the company is only making it a requirement that "some" of the workers be bilingual. That they are hiring workers who ONLY speak Spanish (not bilingual) but have expectations that natural born citizens acquire a second language. To work in the freaking chicken plant.
What the advertisement was REALLY saying is SOME workers (native born Americans) would be required to be bilingual in order to communicate with the employees that AREN'T required to be bi-lingual.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PacificFlights
This is the confusion, the assumption is the two languages are English and Spanish. But they may be English or Spanish and Japanesse. Or what about that plant that requires German plus english, french or spanish for some positions? If you speak german & french your hired. If you speak english and german your hired for those positions, if you speak spanish and german you can also get those positions because the staff you work with speaks german and english or german and spanish or german and french.
We assume that its english first when it could be english second. The language of business is whatever languge they choose and there is absolutely no requirment in the USA for english to be any languge they use in the workplace. People and politicians make people belive that but truth is no busines would accept governement tellingt hem what language they must communicate in as some official policy. Don't assume that english is even a requirment of any job.
It's not confusing. The specific second language depends on the demographics. In Tennessee, that second language is Spanish. I agree with Wartrace. He knows his region. Very few American born citizens speak anything but English. So the advertisement is really saying "If you're American born, you better speak Spanish because most of your coworkers speak Spanish as their first language." It's a manufacturing job in Tennessee. It's not like they are wanting the workers to speak French talk to customers overseas. They just want their manufacturing workers to be able to communicate with each other. It's Tennessee. It's manufacturing. English is definitely one of the lanugages.
In the US it is assumed that the "other language" is Spanish because Hispanics constitute the 2nd largest population. English IS the International Language of Business (look it up). No, the US does NOT have an official language (it is however assumed to be American English). US firms are quite different in how they word their job postings...if French was required as the "other language" it states that (or any other language for that matter). Many states are adopting English Only on state forms. This is a matter of requiring a second language to be spoken for labor positions. If one is to require Spanish, why not just require English to be spoken? It is, for one, a matter of discrimination, for the other it is a matter of alienation.
English is NOT the International language of Busienss, it is the dominent language of business. It is true that more and more businesses are moving to english as a communications tool, but that is an entirely differnt matter than what employers require of their employees. Currently, a person who is denied employment because they speak english and not spanish should have no expectation of being given a job because they speak english over a person who speaks spanish. Most other countries expect their people to speak the local language and some other major other language, prefered it to be english, but only in the USA is speaking englsih only built as some form of entitlement over all other languages.
I'm multi-lingual and believe me, I speak english less than i speak other languages in my daily work. And i can't tell you how many times I had my US citizenship questioned right here in my own country because my englsih isn;t as spot on as the other languages I speak. Its sad when the language creates employment disputes versus the people.
So in addition to drug tests, I'm assuming they test you on your Spanish to make sure you're not trying to pull a fast one?
I could just picture it now;
"Yeah I passed the drug screening, but like those past four years in school I failed the Spanish test!"
When I was living on hawaii can;t tell you how many folks I met who didnlt get a job because they couldn't speak japanesse. Never was asked about english, heck the interview was in japanesse. So japannese in hawaii, spanish in TN, French in VT, or Arabic in Dearborn....
Even now I saw an ad for a US bank here in the US that was in Manderin with a notation like 'ability to converse in English desirebale but not required' this is for a USA bank in the USA for a USA job dealing with customers in the USA. Their on-line application is in Chinesse with english sub translations. I bet the interview will be in other than english as well and I bet english will be secondary in everything thats going on in that office.
I see the same thing in reverse overseas as well. Offices where english is required over their native language in order to communicate with co-workers who speak mostly english. Americans seldom see anything wrong with that but when done in the USA, oh boy do they get upset....
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