SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE : Talking Up Bilingualism : Speaking Other Tongues Is a Real Job Advantage
Being bilingual is an advantage in today’s job market--Christopher Cox can attest to that. If he weren’t fluent in a second language, he wouldn’t be the Spanish-speaking Beetlejuice.
Cox, 23, was hired to impersonate the obnoxious hollow-eyed apparition after the Universal Studios theme park issued a casting call for bilingual performers four months ago. Like many Los Angeles companies, Universal Studios puts a premium on having employees who can communicate with customers from both the city and around the globe.
Cox’s effortless segue from “I’m the ghost with the most” to “Soy el fantasmo con el maximo” during his audition clinched the Beetlejuice job. With that, he joined a work force that also boasts of a bilingual Barney Rubble from “The Flintstones,” bilingual tour guides and bilingual sales representatives.
“The word bilingual is something I look for in every classified ad, because it is one of my most important skills,” said Cox, a Westside resident who learned Spanish in high school and college classes. “The more darts you have to throw at the dartboard, the greater chance you have of hitting a bull’s-eye.”
It takes only a casual glance through local help-wanted ads and the swelling rolls of foreign-language courses for working adults to confirm the wisdom of every parent who ever pleaded with his or her offspring to practice their Spanish, Korean, Japanese or German.
From sales and social work to nursing and banking, there is an increasing number of jobs in which dual-language ability is desired if not required.
According to Berlitz International, 79% of the Los Angeles-area residents who enrolled in its language classes last year cited job-related reasons for attending, up from 66% four years ago.
Health care, finance and government-related fields such as teaching and public safety are the careers where the demand for bilingual workers is greatest, employment specialists say. But manufacturers, retailers and law and real estate firms are also diversifying their staffs in that regard as part of an effort to serve Californians who speak little or no English and to conduct business in Latin American or Asian countries.
A sampling from the classifieds: New York Life Insurance Co., seeking a medical claims examiner in Camarillo, indicates that being bilingual in Spanish would be “helpful.” Minimed Technologies, a Sylmar manufacturer of medical supplies for diabetics, indicates in its telephone customer service opening that bilingual ability is “preferred.” The Baby Toytown store in Reseda has a sales position for which proficiency in both Spanish and English is “necessary.”
“When we have someone who is fluent in both English and Spanish and who has good skills, we can place them as fast as we can get them,” said Mark McComb, North Hollywood branch manager of the Select Personnel employment agency.
McComb estimates that one of every five secretarial and light-manufacturing jobs he helps fill these days specifically calls for fluency in English and another language, usually Spanish.
Job applicants, however, may overestimate their foreign-language or English-speaking ability.
Caroline Shannon, personnel director at the Warner Center Marriott hotel in Woodland Hills, learned that lesson firsthand when she advertised for a Spanish-speaking assistant last year. Her litmus test for all 25 applicants was whether they could credibly explain the hotel’s benefits package in Spanish. “About half were truly bilingual,” Shannon said.
Sometimes businesses must offer the bilingual higher pay to attract the right people.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, facing a shortage of about 2,500 certified bilingual teachers, offers $5,000 in annual incentive pay to teachers qualified to work with children whose English is limited.
Southern California’s amazing linguistic diversity prompted Maureen Clemmons, a director at Sebastian International in Woodland Hills, to take drastic action. Clemmons oversees the makeup and hair care company’s North American sales services division, which performs telemarketing, consumer affairs, order entry and customer service tasks for the United States, Canada, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Eighteen months ago, she decided that every new hire in her division would have to be able to speak a second language--any language.
“Hair salons are a direct reflection of the demographics of Los Angeles and the country. If you are in a Vietnamese neighborhood, you have Vietnamese hairdressers. As a company, we cannot afford not to be able to talk to these customers.”
Companies that do a lot of exporting often prefer to hire foreign-born and foreign-educated candidates over native Californians for jobs requiring contact with international customers. First- and second-generation Californians reared in Spanish-speaking or Japanese-speaking households, for instance, may lose out to immigrants whose written and oral Spanish or Japanese is considered more appropriate for professional use.
“I know a lot of people here who speak Spanish, but it is not the Spanish I would use to do business with,” said Amy Vanni, 52, an administrative assistant with Advanced Semiconductor Inc., a North Hollywood company that exports electronic components.
Vanni, who was reared in Ecuador, works in the company’s Latin American division and is currently helping her boss fill an administrative job that, like hers, requires daily phone contact with South American customers.
Some employers say it’s also critical to hire people who are “bicultural”--that is, who will understand the customs and traditions of a foreign-born clientele.
William Park, 44, a Century 21 real estate agent in Northridge, said familiarity with both the language and culture of Korean American property owners has enabled him and his wife, Michelle, to build a successful practice. The Parks immigrated to California from Seoul 16 years ago. Like many bilingual car sales people and lawyers, the Parks advertise their services in foreign-language newspapers, giving them an access to potential customers their non-bilingual competitors won’t have.
“A lot of Koreans refuse to go to Americans [when they are house-hunting] because there are cultural differences. I know when they come to me the No. 1 priority for Koreans is schools, so I have all the information on the SAT scores, and that makes them comfortable,” William Park said.
