Workforce Language Services

The Society for Human Resource Management’s January cover story is about workplace English language learning.  Rich with information, this article includes a key quote:

“You don’t need English to work at Miller & Long,” says Myles Gladstone, the company’s vice president of human resources, who is fluent in English and Spanish. “But you do need English to get ahead.”

The article points out that the initial impetus for supporting English language learning is safety.  But employers who truly support the upward mobility for their foreign born employees create opportunities for them to learn English for personal growth. 

The SHRM story notes that while supporting employees in their English language acquisition improves the bottom line as well as staff morale, few companies are actually providing employees with opportunities:

Despite growing popularity, employer-provided ESOL classes are rare. Only about 10 percent of employers responding to Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) studies in each of the last two years said they offered ESOL classes as a benefit. Last summer, 24 percent of respondents to a SHRM online survey said they cover some or all of the costs associated with English classes.

Click here to read this informative article as well as access several other articles, videos, and white papers dedicated to this issue.

Language Lines is often mentioned in articles about strategies for working around language barriers.  But this particular article about Pasco County’s demographic shift shows the impact that Language Line has had on communicating with non-English speakers at County offices. 

The article also provides a brief history of Language Lines Services and how heavily it’s currently being used:

Language Line Services, based in Monterey, Calif., has been around since 1984. The company’s first client was the police department in San Jose, and it has had cops and courts as clients ever since. Language Line now has approximately 25,000 clients, according to spokesman Dale Hansman, including hospitals, airports, grocery stores, credit card companies and 75 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. The company has 5,000 translators who speak 176 languages.

The economy is hurting. Not Language Line. Language Line is growing. The number of calls is going up. The number of clients is going up.

“It’s not a novelty,” Hansman said last week. “It’s a necessity.”

In Pasco, public transportation uses language line, the libraries use it, the 911 call center uses it, the sheriff’s office uses it.

To read the entire article from the St. Petersburg Times, click here.

A Wisconsin Law Journal article nicely outlines the process for becoming a certified court interpreter.  Dawn Maldonado shares her experience in becoming an interpreter:

It took Maldonado several months to crack the regular rotation of interpreters in Milwaukee and she along with others involved in the profession suggest that while the “freelance” job can be lucrative, it takes more than a bilingual tongue to succeed.

“It is your own business and it is up to you to (find) your clients and make them happy,” said Maldonado, who has provided Spanish interpretation since 2001. “But I think it is tough and a lot of people fall off because they don’t understand the legalese, which is a big part of the job.”

This article points out a few of the stumbling blocks to becoming a Spanish-English court interpreter: there are far more Spanish-English interpreters in Wisconsin than there are cases; many candidates will need advanced study in not only interpreting but also legal terminology; and the freelancing aspect of the work may make it difficult to make a living interpreting.

I’m pleased to see Wisconsin’s certification process clearly described.  I also find it refreshing that this article is a bit more tempered than others that I’ve seen, many of which make it seem that there is an unfilled need for Spanish-English court interpreters.

Click here for the entire article.

Joseph Salmons, Professor of German at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote a fascinating paper debunking the myth that immigrants in the late 19th century and early 20th century learned English upon arrival.  His research focused on immigrants from Germany who settled in Wisconsin. 

Contrary to the prevailing thought that these immigrants immediately assimilated into American culture by learning English, he found that German immigrants thrived without ever learning English for generations.  This is in sharp counterpoint to the rhetoric of English-only proponents who believe that modern-day Spanish speaking immigrants are behind the language learning curve and refusing to assimilate by learning English.

The article on UW-Madison’s website ends with a comparision between early 20th century immigrants and today’s newly arrived population:

Salmons says their study suggests that conventional wisdom may actually have it backwards — while early immigrants didn’t necessarily need English to succeed and responded slowly, modern immigrants recognize it as a ticket to success and are learning English in extremely high percentages.

To read the fascinating description of the life of early German immigrants and find a link to the entire paper, click here.

The governor of the Peruvian province Callao announced that in 2010, all preschools in this district will be bilingual:

To carry out this project, the governor explained that 5,000 pre-school, elementary and high school teachers would be taught a second language.

Among the languages teachers can choose to learn are English, French, Portuguese, Italian and German.

Despite the variety of languages teachers can choose to learn, Governor Kouri affirmed 85 percent of them would want to command the English language.

It’s an exciting move that government has recognized the importance of targeting this age group which is most able to acquire a second language and not wait until the children are older.  My concern, however, about this move: will the teachers be able to learn the chosen second language to the degree that they will then be able to teach it? 

To read the complete article, click here.

Working at a community center in a community heavily populated by first-generation immigrants, the question of cultural competency and instances of cultural incompetency often come up.  Just today, a colleague shared with me something that a staff person said to her about the food being served at a block party: “We’ve got three kinds of food: two Spanish and one regular.”  At this point, I don’t even flinch when people, including Spanish speakers, refer to anything to do with Hispanic or Latino culture as Spanish.  But my colleague and I were shocked about the “regular food” statement coming from someone who had worked in this highly diverse, multilingual community for two years. 

Ian Reifowitz tackles the current face-off between native Americans and arriving immigrants in an article in the History News Network.  He goes more deeply into why some native Americans are anxious about living in an increasingly multicultural country than the normal battle cry of xenophobia and intolerance and also puts forth some suggestions for healing the rift between native Americans and immigrants:

The native population must also respond to immigrants’ efforts to integrate by ensuring that they and their children receive an equal opportunity to succeed economically and achieve positions of leadership in America. Just as American society can expect immigrants to adopt our language, adapt to our culture, and absorb our democratic values, immigrants and their children can expect and even reasonably demand that American society accept them as full members of the national community.

To read the entire article, click here.

Despite the fact that Macy’s does not have an official English-only policy (in line with the clear law prohibiting such policies), eight Somali employees in Minnesota fear for their jobs.  These employees work in the basement sorting merchandise, have no little to no contact with customers, and are sometimes called upon to interpret for Somali customers on the sales floor.

Macy’s has launched an investigation into the allegations that the employees were threatended with dismissal. 

The article also provides some context into the legal framework and the recent rise in complaints regarding civil rights violations:

As part of the federal Civil Rights Act, employers are barred from making decisions about or harassing workers based on national origin, language or accent. But nationally, these complaints are on the rise.

Between 2002 and 2007, complaints to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rose from a few hundred to almost 9,400. And even though the law is clear in prohibiting English-only rules, it does allow exceptions for business necessity. That means employers can require English for communication with customers or for safety reasons.

English-only rules also violate Minnesota state human rights law. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights reports it has received about half a dozen English-only complaints recently. Most came from Hmong speakers.

An article profiling the Milla family is the first in a series of three pieces about language immersion in Lake Oswego, Oregon.  Curently, the Lake Oswego School District has no Spanish immersion program but the Milla family would like their children to be immersed in the Spanish language.

Steve Milla is of Peruvian descent and conducts most of his business at his law practice in Spanish:

Today 95 percent of his clients are Hispanic. About 50 percent of his work is immigration-related, he said, but he also does personal injury and a little criminal defense “to keep a foot in the courthouse.”

“Then I get people who ask questions like: ‘My rent is late. What do I do?’ Or they have questions about leasing a car,” said Steve, who does almost all of his business in Spanish. He’s had people come in wondering why they don’t own their car after years of payments only to explain to them the difference between leasing and buying.

“I am helping people to make better decisions in the future,” he said.

Both his legal assistant and receptionist are bilingual, and Steve said he wouldn’t hire anyone who is not bilingual – which means he can never hire his wife.

To read the entire profile, click here.

Some corporations are responding to the increasingly adversarial immigration debate with programs like Marriott International’s “Thirst for Knowledge,” which provides language instruction and assimilation assistance for their immigrant employees. 

This program and others are backed by some legislators:

The initiative is supported by a bill recently introduced in Congress. Sponsored by Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., it would provide $350 million for immigrant family literacy programs, individual tax credits for teachers and corporate tax breaks for firms that offer educational workplace programs like “Thirst for Knowledge.”

In addition to support from private firms that employ thousands of immigrants from Latin America and elsewhere, the bill is backed by the Americas Society and Council of the Americas, which recently issued a report about U.S. business and Latinos’ contributions.

The report points out that Latinos make up more than 14 percent of the U.S. workforce and own more than 2 million businesses. It says that foreign-born workers have much to offer but need more help to master English and become more invested in U.S. society.

To read more about this positive move away from xenophobia and toward integration of a large population of U.S. residents, click here.

Katie Hunter offers commentary on Barack Obama’s suggestion that we start teaching our children Spanish in Juan Guillermo Tornoe’s Hispanic Trending blog.  No matter how loudly people protest the phenomenon of “press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish,” the fact is that Spanish-speakers are here to stay and their buying power is increasing. 

What does having 15 million Spanish speakers who don’t speak English “well” mean for us?

So here’s the translation: Those needs increase the demand for doctors, teachers, lawyers, writers, radio hosts, construction foremen, salesmen and many other types of blue and white collar U.S. workers who can speak Spanish. This need has already begun impacting hiring practices. Bilingual job fairs and Web sites are increasingly popular, and nearly half of corporate managers are starting to target Spanish-speaking job candidates. More schools have begun targeting Spanish-speakers too, even shelling out bigger bucks for bilingual teachers.

In the nonprofit sector, the ability to speak Spanish is often required and at least highly desired for many direct service positions.  I’ve also often seen a salary differential paid for those who are bilingual and trilingual. 

As we become more and more of a multilingual country, those who are willing to learn a new language are not only using their brains in new and beneficial ways, but are also increasing their ability to command a higher salary.