A Travel and vacations forum. TravelBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » TravelBanter forum » Travel Regions » USA & Canada
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Bilingual in Europe versus USA



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #10  
Old August 23rd, 2006, 05:02 PM posted to rec.travel.europe,rec.travel.usa-canada
Outlawpoet[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 23
Default Bilingual in Europe versus USA


spamfree wrote:
This is somewhat of a USA rant, but Europeans will understand. In
the USA, if a sign/ad includes the word bilingual, it always refers to
an ability to speak English & Spanish (and not European Spanish, but
Mexican / Central American Spanish). But in Europe, bilingual would
simply refer to an ability to speak two languages; German & Italian,
Dutch & French, etc. A European employment ad requiring bilingual
employees would always attract the query "Which two languages?"
This USA policy completely annoys some of us because if we ask that
question, "Which two languages?", we are immediately termed racists,
but in reality we are merely literalists. In any major city's Chinatown,
bilingual would more honestly refer to English & Chinese, and there are
neighborhoods in New York and Chicago where bilingual could easily
refer to English & Polish or English & Russian.


Where in the US are you? I'm in LA where we have a huge Hispanic
population, but whenever I've seen an ad asking for bilinqual
employees, they specify the languages they are looking for. And more
often than not, they are seeking folks who speak some of the Asian
languages.

As for signage here, it's more common to simply have the sign include
the same ad copy in the various languages represented by the company.
Ads for dentists, doctors, contractors etc. state quite proudly the
number of different languages their employees speak - not simply
Spanish.

When I worked in retail (about five years ago), our name tags specifed
the other language we spoke. We had a huge number of employees who
spoke French, Italian, Cantonese and even Hindi and Arabic.

 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
rec.travel.europe FAQ Yves Bellefeuille Europe 0 August 30th, 2005 05:27 AM
rec.travel.europe FAQ Yves Bellefeuille Europe 0 November 28th, 2004 06:17 AM
rec.travel.europe FAQ Yves Bellefeuille Europe 0 January 16th, 2004 10:20 AM
rec.travel.europe FAQ Yves Bellefeuille Travel - anything else not covered 0 December 15th, 2003 10:49 AM
rec.travel.europe FAQ Yves Bellefeuille Europe 0 October 10th, 2003 09:44 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:08 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 TravelBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.