By Astrid Rial, president, Arial International
Astrid Rial, president, Arial International
Photo: Arial International
Companies who are hiring bilingual talent to service U.S. Hispanic customers are seeking employees who are able to effectively communicate in “Business Spanish” so that they can deliver products and services to Spanish-speaking customers. However, confirming that job candidates are fluent in verbal and/or written English and Spanish is a challenge if the recruiter is not fully bilingual.
Many Spanish speakers in the U.S. speak colloquial Spanish. They are able to converse across the dinner table, but they lack the vocabulary or knowledge of grammar, syntax or verb conjugation rules to conduct a business conversation in Spanish. Unless the interviewer is fully fluent in both languages, recruiters find it difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between casual and business Spanish-speakers. For companies who offer differential pay for bilingual language skills, the recruiter has the additional responsibility of ensuring the candidate’s verbal communication and/or writing skills are professional and appropriate for a business environment.
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Very important subject, report, service and information. With millions of hispanics on board, there should also be an enormous amount of persons capable to fit such job descriptions. Unfortunately, that’s where it stays, in job descriptions. Informing should have as its last name, Educating. To increase language proficiency and probability of hiring, more than messages should be given in bulletins. It should be followed by organized, planned campaigns, implented and delivered to school students and teachers to motivate them to exercise purity of languages.
Hispanics should not be embarrased to speak their native language, on the contrary, besides learning good written and spoken English, they need to focus on not loosing their own. Focus in learning both well and be proud to know two languages.
Two languages well spoken, written and interpreted correctly will be -or I should say, is- half of the road walked while on their way to the ‘american dream’.
Congratulations on the service Arial International offers and hope that you may go a step forward.
Comment by Luisa M. Fournier — July 26, 2006 @ 9:28 am