Comments on: Immigrant? Quebecois? Newfoundlanders? Not wanted.

By: Fresh Sunir

Fresh Sunir — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:42:12 +0000

Fernella, it’s not surprising that the YMCA as a charitable non-profit organization is helping recent immigrants get a foothold, and it’s not surprising that recent immigrants are working minimum wage service jobs. It’s not that different than Australia.

Anyway, since you’re wondering if “is this Canada?”, I strongly recommend reading the novel, “In the Skin of the Lion” by Michael Ondaatje. It talks about the lives of recently immigrated Italians in Toronto, who as a community we now take for granted as ‘English speaking’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Skin_of_a_Lion

By: Fernella

Fernella — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:09:04 +0000

I recently moved to Toronto from Australia and am shocked by the number of people working in service professions with unintelligible accents. The worse was the YMCA where NOONE spoke standard Canadian English. I was told that Canadians don’t like to impose their culture on immigrants but what has happened in Toronto is a tragedy. There is now an underclass of fastfood workers, street vendors etc. who speak a pidgin English. Children have been born and raised in the city without acquiring a Canadian English accent. Is this Canada?

By: Reginald Cottle

Reginald Cottle — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:36:25 +0000

It’s bad enough; we have to put up with all the tribalism between the so called God fearing Muslims, Christians, and Jews; and any other so called spiritual group; disturbing the peace of the world.
Such disparaging actions only serve to weaken the fabric of society as a whole. What next rakes and shovels over the fence between our neighbours…

By: James

James — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:21:38 +0000

Alas, since the days of Babel, communication skills have resulted in “many” conflicts and all out war. I have spoken to many clients who absolutely cannot stand the fact that when they call tech support (Dell, for example) they are talking to someone “in” India. Myself personally, I could care less “where” somone lives or how they speak as long as they can “solve” my problem. THAT should be the primary SKILL a prospective employee should be graded on. If that person, however smart or educated, cannot properly “communicate” the solution… they will not get the job. That is the bottom line, in my opinion.

By: Aaron Adams

Aaron Adams — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:35:08 +0000

If he were “keeping it real,” why the euphemism? To normal, non-xenophobic human beings, “communication skills” means communication skills. If that’s not what he was ranking, then why didn’t he just call it what it was?

And why stop at accents… I’ve got a minor lisp, shouldn’t that bring me down to at least a nine? And then there’s that awful Canadian accent I’m sporting. Nothing I can do aboot that, either.

There’s nothing wrong with “accent reduction,” and Leon, I can certainly feel for your point about the one Pakistani administrator. The point is that it’s invalid to judge communication purely on the accent. In fact, it’s ridiculous. I’d say the majority of people without an accent remain completely unhireable in a customer service position, yet they’d rank a 10? Poppycock.

Now, I’ll admit it can get a little frustrating living here in Toronto. It’s wonderful being surrounded by so much culture and language, but it gets to be a bit much when it becomes impossible to communicate with others; there are many people who simply don’t bother to learn to speak English. I’m very much in the “when in Rome” camp, so I don’t see any supposed “beauty” in moving to a land of opportunity, and then only associating with your own culture and refusing to learn the native language. If I moved to Japan, or China, or Italy or France or Brazil or Mexico, you’d better believe I’d learn the language, ASAP.

But to those people who are making the effort and learning the language, it’s ridiculous to knock them down because they haven’t nailed down the nuances of our pronunciations. It’s even more ridiculous to rank them below the Georges of the world.

At least attitudes like this are on the decline. Here’s hoping they’ll eventually dissipate… you know, when we’re all inevitably speaking Mandarin.

By: Jarred

Jarred — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:13:35 +0000

Its all very well to get all politically correct and offended (how noble and Canadian of you) when someone refers to accents when recruiting people but the fact of the matter is that it is really annoying trying to transact business with people who have poor language skills.

Billions of dollars are lost in the North American economy due to businesses hiring ESL staffers in an attempt to drive down labour costs.

What’s the problem with accent reduction classes? I say “good on” the recruiter for keeping it real.

By: Leon

Leon — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 01:38:48 +0000

my comprehension “skills” need some work it seems.
I didn’t realize that “communication” was a euphemism up there for “not for you darky” until the second reading.

By: Sunir

Sunir — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:16:07 +0000

Leon, I think we both agree that communication skills are everything. However, communication skills are much more than enunciation. They are presentation skills, listening skills, facilitation skills, negotiation skills, teaching skills, and leadership skills. After all, they are *skills*!

So, as the only dimension of measuring communication skills is how thick the candidate’s accent is, the underlying story of this recruiter is that he wasn’t *really* measuring communication skills… he was measuring ‘foreignness’, which is discriminatory.

By: Leon Jackson

Leon Jackson — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:28:18 +0000

To me color or origin is not a huge problem, it better not be, my big black momma would get mad at me if it was.
But I have to be able to understand what you are saying.
I work with some fellows from Pakistan at times. Only one of them has made an effort to “thin out” his accent. All of them are fine sysadmins. But i prefer to talk to the one guy because I don’t have to work at understanding him.

I don’t have a problem with immigrants. I would hire one to be a tech in my shop or in the field if I was in a position to do so.
But I really couldn’t put one in any outward facing position such as sales or first contact unless they were able to speak very clearly.
I’d have the same problem with hiring a white or black american for the same type of position that had a deep “country redneck” accent as well.
Businesses owners have an image to maintain. While my thoughts may be discriminatory, i don’t believe it’s racist in the least bit.
If a potential client cannot understand what is being said to them they aren’t going to spend any more time considering your company.

By: Lisa Onizuka

Lisa Onizuka — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:17:29 +0000

Thank you for publishing your thoughts and defending the idea that the value any person brings to an organization is in their insight, dedication, and effort rather than their birthplace.

Thanks also for a fabulous application that seriously makes my job soooooooo much easier. I don’t know if I could put a specific $ value on it, but I’m sure I’ve made a lot more money this last year due to the fact that I get paid faster and don’t waste time anymore chasing down late payers.

You FreshBookers rock! ; )