Bilingual Jobs in demand?
For those who don’t speak SPANISH, how do you feel about the demand for ‘bilingual prefered’ jobs out there. I don’t mean bilingual like Mandarin or Chinese, I mean strictly spanish. I’m speaking primarily in the Southern states (Texas in particular). Is it our (legal English speaking Americans) fault that all the illegal mexicans come over here and can’t speak English? The economy is in too much trouble to solely give out better jobs to Mexican Americans because they were born in homes with two languages that were not taught in an institution. I view Houston Craigslist Admin jobs everyday and most of them want you to speak spanish. I could see if it was a mexican restaurant or something, but most of the time, the managers are just hispanic, and I honestly believe they are racist.
There’s an old joke that goes:
“What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages?”
“Trilingual.”
“What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages?”
“Bilingual.”
“What do you call someone who only speaks 1 language?”
“American.”
Stop acting like an ugly American, and grow up already.
What’s wrong with wanting employees to be bilingual? America has no official language and if an office is going to be dealing with people who speak Spanish, it’s often a good idea to hire employees who can also speak Spanish.
If you think things are bad in Texas, try California. Here, all state documents are produced in 7 different languages – English, Spanish, German, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Vietnamese, Portuguese and Japanese. It’s increasingly difficult to get a job in a state office if you only speak English. This isn’t racism, it’s just the reality of doing business in a multicultural atmosphere – you know, that whole “melting pot” analogy we heard about in social studies as kids.
The world is shrinking. If businesses expect to stay in business, they have to speak the language of their clients. Simply saying “We’re in America, speak English!” is a surefire way to lose customers to a business that “gets it” and at least attempts to speak their language.
You also seem to forget that when many people first immigrate to the US – LEGALLY that is – they don’t speak English at all, much less fluently. This is especially true of older people who will have more difficulty in learning the language. Throw in the fact that immigrants tend to clump together in neighborhoods (e.g. “Chinatown”) and it’s quite possible to never have to learn or use English so long as you don’t go outside of that area.
Finally, is THAT hard to learn Spanish? Take a night course or two at a community college. You don’t even need to become fluent. It’ll do wonders for your career. Really it will. I learned Japanese in college, and can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to use my language skills on the job. In each case, it has helped make a positive impact on customers – Japanese, American, and otherwise.
