Workforce Language Services

Chicago’s Chinatown is the 3rd largest in the United States, and is currently undergoing a linguistic and cultural shift from Cantonese to Mandarin. The People’s Republic of China standardized Mandarin as the national language in 1955, and now, many more immigrants are familiar with the language.

Immigrants from the northern part of China who speak Mandarin are deciding to settle outside of the traditionally Cantonese Chinatown, distancing the two Chinese communities.

“It’s the cultural background, in addition to the language problem, that makes people prefer one community over another,” [Susan] Ng-Harroun [executive director of the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce] said.

While the two language groups do interact at times within the community, such as for Chinese New Year celebrations, the limitations in conversational skills, coupled with different traditions, has led to more segregation than unity.

“The different dialects do reflect some cultural differences,” [David] Wu said. “The Chinese churches, restaurants and businesses outside of Chinatown are all Mandarin communities.”

Business owners see that Mandarin speakers won’t shop at Cantonese establishments. However, little by little, the signage in Chinatown is incorporating more simplified Chinese script, which Mandarin speakers typically read.

Read a full report of the shifting languages in Chinatown in this Medill article. Check out the article’s example of changing signage.

FIFA’s rule no. 6 prohibits “Using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures.” So, how can FIFA referees make a call on this rule when they don’t understand what a soccer player is saying?

Alex Stone, a FIFA spokesman, acknowledged that with at least 17 languages spoken by the 32 teams in the World Cup, it is impossible for referees to understand all of them.

“It’s not the words, it’s what they’re doing,” he said. “It’s what they’re saying or how they’re behaving.”

Civility and aggressive vulgarity are universally understood.

Last Saturday, the U.S. vs U.K. game was refereed by a team of Brazilians, who listen carefully to words they “might not have learned in school.” Wayne Rooney in particular is known for his sharp mouth and high emotions, for which he has been ejected on more than one occasion.

“We have to learn what kind of words the players say,” Altemir Hausmann, a referee’s assistant, told Globo TV Sports in Brazil. “All players swear and we know we will hear a few.”

Click here to read the full NYTimes report on this particular factor in the World Cup games.

Many Korean immigrants have recently found themselves in the Korean American Resource and Cultural Center taking classes in—what else?—Spanish. People like Sue Choe, who owns a laundromat in Koreatown, see many reasons to learn the language that many of her customers speak.

Aware of an ugly history between Korean-Americans and African-Americans–one that erupted into violence in some cities in the 1990s–Korean business owners are trying to soothe mutual suspicions with Spanish-speaking workers and customers. The effort is mostly born of an increasingly interdependent employer-employee relationship.

It is just one of the ways in which new waves of immigration and intermigration between neighborhoods is fast changing the city, mixing new combinations of ethnic groups together and forcing them to search for ways to coexist as so many previous generations of immigrants did.

Beginning a community dialogue is important, especially recalling the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles. It’s also important because Koreans and Hispanics don’t just live in the same communities, they work together too. Hispanics have become the primary labor pool for Korean business owners, and cultural differences have erupted in the workplace.

Latino workers, many earning less than the minimum wage, complain that their Korean bosses neglect to pay overtime and are often callous about days off or job-related injuries.

In turn Korean owners, at times unfamiliar with U.S. labor laws, see ingratitude and disloyalty in their employees’ complaints. They argue that their up-from-the-ground businesses are a team effort that also has the owners working long hours.

Disputes have hurt both sides.  Learning to understand the cultures around you (and their languages) is a great start. Read the full Chicago Tribune article about this issue here.

Want to learn the languages spoken in your neighborhood? Visit MultilingualChicago.com to learn about language classes and workshops in your area!

With a fast growing Hispanic population in the U.S., poor Hispanic graduation rates could have huge consequences in the future of our nation. A new study called “Rising to the Challenge: Raising Hispanic Graduation Rates as a National Priority” shows that many of our 4-year colleges are graduating less than half of their Hispanic students.

Colleges and universities across the board graduate 51 percent of their Hispanic students versus 59 percent of their white peers.

When the study’s researchers examined graduation rates among similarly selective colleges and universities, they found considerable variation in Hispanic graduation rates, indicating that though student background is important, institutional practices also play a role.

“This data shows quite clearly that colleges and universities cannot place all of the blame on students for failing to graduate,” said Andrew P. Kelly of the American Enterprise Institute. “Colleges struggling to graduate their Hispanic students should learn from the successes of leaders like Whittier College, which has successfully closed the gap between its Hispanic and white students.”

So what can colleges to do to help retain Hispanic students? The student found that rates tend to improve with “an increased institutional focus on graduating all students, better consumer information, and reformed government funding that focuses on performance instead of enrollment.”

The low rates can’t be ignored. HispanicTips.com, reporting on this study, writes that “education beyond high school is critical for both a strong economy and the financial security of American families. Employees with higher education are more productive and earn more money than those who only graduated from high school.”

Read the full article here.