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TheStar.com - Business - Bad English barrier to job: Survey
Language gulf separates employers, immigrants
March 09, 2009
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
IMMIGRATION REPORTER
The vast majority of employers turn down foreign-trained professionals for jobs because their English isn't good enough, but the vast majority of immigrants say their English is fine, a survey has found.
Georgia Wilder, director of the Toronto MELAB Centre for language testing, isn't surprised. She ascribed quiet racism, wounded egos and slightly dishonest Canadian politeness for the huge gap.
"Some foreign-trained professionals have better grammar than native speakers but it can be rote learning. They lack the social markers of language. When I say, `How did you find the test?' they might answer literally and describe going to a website and downloading it."
A survey released at a conference of 1,600 internationally trained professionals in Toronto this month tagged English fluency as the biggest gulf between employers and high-skilled immigrants looking for a job. The Compas Research survey found 87 per cent of senior executives said inadequate language skills stopped them from hiring foreign-trained professionals, but very few of those newcomers saw their language as inadequate.
Executives polled at 150 companies also said they would be too embarrassed to tell the immigrant why he or she didn't get the job.
"Employers may perceive an accent as a language barrier. But we all have accents. I find Glaswegian English very hard to understand," Wilder said in an interview.
Foreign-trained professionals also need to recognize their shortcomings, she said. A person may be fluent in the English of pharmacology or nursing but not in small talk. When MELAB at the University of Toronto tested immigration consultants, many of them working in Canada for years, they were furious if they failed and blamed the test.
While Torontonians, living in a city where you can hear dozens of languages riding the subway from Kennedy to Kipling, have "friendly ears," employers may unconsciously decide someone who uses the present progressive ("This book is costing me money") or the wrong preposition ("I work in Willcocks St.") can't speak English well enough, she said.
"There is something euphemistically sinister about calling it a language barrier," said Wilder. "There is some discrimination, although it may not be overt. They're not being honest."
Lionel LaRoche, who was raised in France, told employers at the conference lunch about his own adjustment to Canadian English:
A Canadian boss will tell an employee, "This report is really well-done but the third chapter needs a little work," he said. A French boss will say, "The third chapter is terrible, do it over."
"No one wanted to work for me," said LaRoche, president of MCB Solutions. "I had to learn soft skills."
Wilder sees English morphing and believes employers need to realize that. International English is becoming more accepted, with McDonald's "I'm lovin' it" slogan a good example.
"The idea of standard English is going out the window. If employers insist on the Queen's English, they will lose out in a volatile, global economy."更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
TheStar.com - Business - Bad English barrier to job: Survey
Language gulf separates employers, immigrants
March 09, 2009
Lesley Ciarula Taylor
IMMIGRATION REPORTER
The vast majority of employers turn down foreign-trained professionals for jobs because their English isn't good enough, but the vast majority of immigrants say their English is fine, a survey has found.
Georgia Wilder, director of the Toronto MELAB Centre for language testing, isn't surprised. She ascribed quiet racism, wounded egos and slightly dishonest Canadian politeness for the huge gap.
"Some foreign-trained professionals have better grammar than native speakers but it can be rote learning. They lack the social markers of language. When I say, `How did you find the test?' they might answer literally and describe going to a website and downloading it."
A survey released at a conference of 1,600 internationally trained professionals in Toronto this month tagged English fluency as the biggest gulf between employers and high-skilled immigrants looking for a job. The Compas Research survey found 87 per cent of senior executives said inadequate language skills stopped them from hiring foreign-trained professionals, but very few of those newcomers saw their language as inadequate.
Executives polled at 150 companies also said they would be too embarrassed to tell the immigrant why he or she didn't get the job.
"Employers may perceive an accent as a language barrier. But we all have accents. I find Glaswegian English very hard to understand," Wilder said in an interview.
Foreign-trained professionals also need to recognize their shortcomings, she said. A person may be fluent in the English of pharmacology or nursing but not in small talk. When MELAB at the University of Toronto tested immigration consultants, many of them working in Canada for years, they were furious if they failed and blamed the test.
While Torontonians, living in a city where you can hear dozens of languages riding the subway from Kennedy to Kipling, have "friendly ears," employers may unconsciously decide someone who uses the present progressive ("This book is costing me money") or the wrong preposition ("I work in Willcocks St.") can't speak English well enough, she said.
"There is something euphemistically sinister about calling it a language barrier," said Wilder. "There is some discrimination, although it may not be overt. They're not being honest."
Lionel LaRoche, who was raised in France, told employers at the conference lunch about his own adjustment to Canadian English:
A Canadian boss will tell an employee, "This report is really well-done but the third chapter needs a little work," he said. A French boss will say, "The third chapter is terrible, do it over."
"No one wanted to work for me," said LaRoche, president of MCB Solutions. "I had to learn soft skills."
Wilder sees English morphing and believes employers need to realize that. International English is becoming more accepted, with McDonald's "I'm lovin' it" slogan a good example.
"The idea of standard English is going out the window. If employers insist on the Queen's English, they will lose out in a volatile, global economy."更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net