Job Discussion Forums

MO39 · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:58 pm Post subject: When English is the Rule at Work

While getting my daily New York Times "fix", I found this article about one office of the the Salvation Army that has put into place a new "English Only" workplace rule. As a result, two Hispanic long-time workers have been fired! The SA is being sued by the US Equal Opportunity Commission. Here's the link - what do you think?

http://my.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20080131/47a155d0_3421_13345200801311156615504

I await the Mexico forum's usual thoughtful responses!

Marsha

dixie · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 644 Location: D.F

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Two Hispanic workers EXECUTED for speaking Spanish in the workplace in the US? Wink

dixie · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 644 Location: D.F

MO39 · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 8:40 pm Post subject:

Sorry about the incorrect link, everyone. Thanks for finding the correct one, dixie.

TheLongWayHome · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi

I once had a class from Honeywell who weren't allowed to speak Spanish at work. They reckoned they could get fired for it. Their English was very good though and nothing like a bit of fascism to get you speaking English.

MELEE · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:18 pm Post subject:

I found it disturbing that they didn't mention if those two employees could speak English. I imagine the could at least speak some. Most of the other cases presented in the article seemed to be bilinguals. To me it looks like a lot of monolinguals are jealous! Of course, you should be able to speak the language you need to do the job. But you shouldn't be punished for speaking more than that. That'd be like having an employee who only needed to know how to use MS Office and punishing them for knowing how to program.

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:05 am Post subject:

I look at it this way: If you have a job where you only need to speak in your native language and you are able to get along OK in that country, what's the prob? If you want to advance and be more succesful, learning the host country's official language would be helpful.

I get along fine here in Mexico with my current level of Spanish. Likewise, many of the Latino immigrants in the US get along just fine speaking no English at all. If you really want to become a part of you adopted country, learning the lingo is a pretty important step.

I think its a lot harder to live in Mexico with no or limited Spanish than it is to live in the US with little or no English, especially if you speak Spanish. In many places for example, you can do almost everything in Spanish. Apply for a job, work, rent an apartment or a house, pay bills, take the bus, open a bank account, get a drivers license, register to vote/vote, study, go to church or just about anything else you can think of. Try to do something in Mexico with little/no Spanish, even the people at the INM office can't make a sentence in English. Bueno suerte!

corporatehuman · Joined: 09 Jan 2006 Posts: 198 Location: Mexico City

You don't really need to speak English let alone any language to work at the Salvation Army.