Must Speak Spanish
Recently I put in for an HR position with the company I have been working for. The warehouse has several non English speaking workers. The posting did list Spanish as a requirement, however they received no internal responses. I provided my manager with my resume and told him that I would like to be considered for this position, even though I do not speak Spanish. He was excited for me and told me that I could always take Spanish classes in the evening and learn. The next day he advised me that HR would not consider my application because I did not speak Spanish. I understand (somewhat) however I feel extremely discriminated against.
I am of the belief that if you want to live and work in this country then you should learn the English language. I am also of the belief that if I want to live and work in another country where English is not the first language spoken, then I should take the time to learn that language before I go to that country. In that vein, I also believe that the people who have taken the time to learn the English language in order to live and work in this country should be able to feel comfortable at the job site. So, yes, I think that it is a reasonable suggestion for the company to ask that certain positions have a conversational grasp of the language which is spoken by the employees who are not from an English speaking country. However, I don't think that it should be a requirement. The requirement should be for the employees to know how to speak English. And, also that English be spoken in ALL common areas. In other words, areas where employees meet on a regular basis with the need to discuss business related and non-business related matters.
I agree, to have success in business there needs to be no gap in communication. I just resent the opportunity to advance in my career is limited because of a language barrier. I have encouraged my children to learn Spanish for their future, I should get over being upset about it and learn the language. I believe it should be their responsibility to learn English if they choose to live and work here, however that is not reality. I will step down from my soap box. : )
You're not being discriminated against. No one is requiring you to be any specific ethnicity, they're requiring you to have a skill that you don't have. The job requirement is to speak Spanish. You don't do that and you can't even say that you're working on it. If the job requirement was to be proficient in Access and you didn't know anything about that it would be the same. Unless you go with one of the intense (and pricey) Spanish immersion courses (such as Rosetta Stone), you're not going to be able to communicate well with your staff for months and months, maybe years. You need a complex vocabulary to do more than point at what box the warehouse staff should move. It takes time and an understanding of the grammar to develop that. If you're going to be in HR, you're going to have to discuss complex topics with this group and while many of those conversations may be in a hybrid of english and spanish, you're going to need good spanish comprehension and output to pull it off. If you want to move to that position down the road, now is the time to start taking classes then reapply next time an opening comes up. Tess | |
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