Do you believe that we should all be bi-lingual in the work place?

Answer 1

It's good to be bilingual or trilingual. Anywhere.

Answer 2

Yes I do, absolutely. I speak Spanish and understand some of several other languages. I learned other languages for travel and because I wanted to broaden my horizon, my scope of life.

In too many work environments not enough or ANY employees speak any other language but English. In a corporate setting this limits not only the return on investment or the money a company can make, it also turns into just plain and simple bad customer relations when you have a customer calling from another country or even here who has not yet mastered English.

Americans need to understand you can still be patriotic and have English as the official language AND be bilingual. This has NOTHING to do with the immigration debate - nothing at all. This has to do with the workplace and employees and the American business being able to increase profits and customer satisfaction with a strong business model. Having more bilingual employees would help and it all starts at school early on.

Corporations should encourage and reward employees - especially young new employees - who study and learn to speak foreign languages that can be used in the work environment. In the end this will help all American corporations and our country here and abroad.

Answer 3

No, I do not, unless it is critical to the management, suppliers and customers of the business, for example, in an ethnic neighborhood or in an ethnic specialty business. Bi-linguality as a requirement for all workers would discourage new immigrants from ever learning the English language, and would put many people with a limited ability to learn a second language, i.e., like me, out of the positions they already have, or reduce the likelihood of their getting a fair chance at employment in their own native country. Regardless, that having been said, anything that allows people to better communicate with and understand oneanother cannot be all that bad. Good question! Ciao!

Answer 4

It is a little unclear what you are asking.

If you are asking if it is beneficial to be bi-lingual, absolutely. All these English only folks need to look at the question from a business owners perspective - I find it extremely frustrating to lose a customer to a competitor because I don't speak Spanish fluently, or be unable to expand my labor pool because I can't communicate with many talented, hard working, but poor English skill applicants.

I think many responders above seem to have taken this as an opportunity to rant and rave about people learning English. As a customer, I agree. Here in Texas, it is not uncommon to go to a restaurant and have few, if any, people with acceptable English skills. And I'm talking customer facing positions here, not just fry cook.

But if I were not a native English speaker, I'd probably feel more comfortable speaking my native language. For this reason, I think it is beneficial to be able to communicate to customers in a way THEY feel comfortable. If I can't do that, I lose them as a customer.

In terms of a "global workplace" it is absolutely beneficial to be able to speak multiple languages. I used to work for a company with offices in 72 countries, and every couple of years was asked to do some training. While everyone in the company was expected to be able to speak some English, it was not the first language of many, and many employees didn't feel comfortable speaking English. So here's a situation where the "speak English or go home" crowd really looks pretty silly. While many of the Europeans speak multiple languages, many of the South Americans and Asians did not. On several occasions, I had to have a bi-lingual employee translate for me just to be able to communicate with another employee. (One from Mexico City, 2 or 3 from Madrid, one from Tokyo).

I find it amazing here in Texas that Spanish is not a mandatory subject early in school. I think it is because of the anti-immigrant, pro-english only stance - but I think that ridiculous. One of our largest trading partners is immediately to our south, and we're bypassing business opportunities in Mexico and South America because we're upset that recent immigrants don't have adequate English language skills? That's asinine.

And to forestall any criticism, I'm saying being BI-LINGUAL is beneficial. Obviously, anyone who cannot speak English in the United States is going to have much more limited employment opportunities. Having a common language is beneficial, and I don't think anyone, even those with poor English skills would disagree. I don't think I've ever seen anyone advocate NOT learning English; I think living in the United States it is absolutely vital to do so.

Answer 5

Absolutely not. In California, you would not believe the percentage of jobs for which it is required, and the extra pay available for being bi-lingual. Most cities offer their Government Info in more than 10 languages, many more than 15. Because we all heard the "melting pot" story in school? Number two, they all learned English. The continual reference to the "melting pot" term as an excuse to continually deviate is unfounded and ridiculous.

Answer 6

No, we speak English in this country and in a lot of cases there are no words to describe some of the latest technology advancements except in English. Also, this places a very large burden on the schools and other educational facilities that would need to have the same classes taught in multiple languages.

One major reason we should keep English as the standard, no other country in the world allows this so why should we?

Answer 7

I think the polyglot employee has a distinct advantage over their single-language competition, simply due to their capacity to communicate with more people. I don't think it should be a mandatory requirement, and the primary and dominant langage in modern business is english. Like it or lump it, it's the Lingua Franca of Money. And, increasingly, in places like America, customer demand is for people that speak english really well, so it's a worthy task to polish up your english, even if you were born speaking it. Clean up your slang, work on your enunciation, and have some people that do speak other languages, too, for the inevitable need of taking care of customers that don't have a good handle on english.....

Answer 8

Are you KIDDING??? We shouldn't even be bi-lingual in PUBLIC!!! This is America. We speak ENGLISH here! Being bi-lingual is beneficial for individuals but as a society it is causing the total downfall of this nation as created and intended by our founding fathers!

People are completely wrong in thinking America is a multi-cultural nation. WE ARE NOT!!! We are multi-ETHNIC. There is a HUGE difference and this insane push for mulit-culturalism in this country is destroying it! Assimilate or LEAVE!!!

Answer 9

Not a bad idea, but other than English what really would be the best second language. In Canada, French is the official second language but less than 30% of the country speaks it fluently. For the US, Spanish is a great second language, but is it of any use for companies doing business with the Pacific Rim, where a langugage like Mandarin would be useful.

Answer 10

I think that it depends.

For instance, I don't ever need to use any language other than english. I am a software engineer, and there are times with some of our manufactures that are in China that need someone in the company to speak chinese, but we have employees to fill that role.

There just is really no need for anyone in my position to speak multiple languages, unless one of my coworkers or employees only spoke the second language (spanish, chinese, etc). And this would never be the case, as they would have to speak english to acquire the job.

So in short I don't believe that it is necessary for all jobs to require a bilengual employee. However it would definitely be beneficial in service type jobs.

Answer 11

Absolutely not! I'm a "legal alien" and i think everybody coming to a foreign country should learn the language or leave. I'm getting very upset when i call for example the utility company or go to the ATM and have to choose a language. In the USA it should be English and nothing else. Period. I learned it too.