Who decides your abilities ?
Monday, November 28th, 2005 -- J. DoeThis summer in Italy I received a phone call. The conversation went something like this:
Caller: “Is someone there looking for a job ?”
Me: “Yes, I am looking for a job.”
Caller: (who must have heard my foreign accent) “Are you Italian ?”
Me: “No, I am American.”
Caller: ” And how many years have you lived in Italy ?”
Me:”I have been living here for 3 years.”
Caller: “Ahhhhh, but this job requires that you speak Italian.”
Me: “But I do speak Italian,”
Caller: “OK. Bye.” And then hung up the phone.
Note: This conversation was in Italian, and even though the caller did most of the speaking, I understood her so it should be assumed that I have some ability to speak Italian, yet I was dismissed because I was not a native Italian speaker. Not even given a chance to prove myself.
Obviously I cannot speak with 100 percent clarity, because in the United States I am a native speaker, but I highly doubt that Buzzurro will suffer the same humliating experience as me if he gets a phone call from an American job recruitment agency.
Many Americans speak with accents. Just because you have one doesn’t signify that you don’t know the language enough to work in a job that requires it.
I also think that if a US recruiter were to have any doubts at all about a client’s ability to speak English he would arrange for a more comprehensive speaking interview, perhaps he would give a proficiency test.
After all, conversing on the phone is the hardest part of learning a language, and if one can do that, even if only for a few seconds, shows a knowledge of the language not worth ignoring.
Well, I must say that this kind of mentality doesn’t really fly here in Spain. I know plenty of non-native Spanish speakers who got jobs from Spanish employers. In fact, my girlfriend, who is Czech, was even hired by the English language school I work at to teach English despite the fact that the owner specifically advertizes “native speakers”.
For me it’s simply shocking that an unsolicited phone call would arrive asking you if you were looking for a job! Amazing!
Can’t sit still, It was very shocking for me too, but my happy-shock soon turned to a despair-shock when i was denied even a chance to prove myself.
I perfectly agree with you. That is simply a matter of good manners.
For many years I lived in the UK, and I found the very same attitude there.
It amazes me how in the US they think so highly of the British, but in the UK, they think the US is yucky pond scum.
I hate to hear stories like this but I have heard it more often than you know. I am actually jealous that you are moving back to the U.S.