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What does bilingual mean, anyway? June 5, 2008

Posted by scbr in Spanish, bilingual, diversity, hispanic jobs.
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I am a bilingual professional -in fact trilingual- and if I had the face to stretch the truth I would say multilingual. I speak Spanish, my native language, English -my adopted language since I moved to the US- and if I practice I could probably get back to speaking French. I have a decent understanding of Portuguese and Italian when it comes to reading, but I can’t speak either.

But this posting is about what it means to be bilingual when we are talking about jobseekers. Normally, you would call bilingual someone that can manage in two languages, right? But what is “to manage”? Read, write and speak or just comprehend? Where you draw the line?

I am the kind that can be a bit of a perfectionist for some things, so for a long time I didn’t consider myself “fully bilingual” because I definitely have an accent when I speak and some weird grammar if I write in a rush. Being that my Spanish is impeccable, I felt that my English was not at the same level and I didn’t feel comfortable calling myself “fully bilingual”.

Big mistake. After some years I noticed that fully bilingual does not mean perfect. It means you can write, speak and read in any of those languages without struggling. Now, while knowing English is very important for any professional in my country of origin, being bilingual here in the US most of the time goes beyond the language.

And that is why at LatPro we believe that most of our jobseekers are not just bilingual but bicultural. Most of our candidates, not all of them of course, are second or third generation Hispanics. That means not only that they know the language, but they know the culture too. They know the American culture because that is what they live daily, but they know the values and priorities of the Hispanic culture. They have an insight that is extremely valuable for any company trying to reach that market.

So if you are a Hispanic jobseeker remember: you have an advantage, and that is that you are bicultural. “Fully bilingual” or not.

Let’s meet at SHRM Annual June 3, 2008

Posted by robertsteward3 in Spanish, bilingual, diversity, hispanic jobs.
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For most recruiters and HR professionals, SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, needs no introduction. SHRM offers lots of valuable learning opportunities and certifications amongst its benefits for the HR community.

 

But let me offer a little perspective on what exhibiting at SHRM does for LatPro and I’d guess lots of other job boards. SHRM has two sets of clients that it needs to make happy, so let me give some insight from the non-HR world. And yes, I know that there are many HR people and HR providers that are outside of the recruiting and job board world, but this is my post and I don’t work for those companies (certainly feel free to add your knowledge here with a reply about those areas).

 

Over the years, LatPro has exhibited at all of the different SHRM trade shows, trying to figure out which offered the most value for our business. Without a doubt, we’ve found that the Annual Conference provides the best opportunity to speak with high level HR executives and recruiting professionals. It also gives us the chance to see what other vendors and job boards are doing and to keep in touch with other business colleagues from other companies. We’ve also found the Staffing Management Conference (fka EMA) and Diversity Conference to be valuable targeted trade shows where we can meet a specific specialty of HR professionals that most closely match our business offerings.

 

Exhibiting at SHRM’s trade shows gives us the ability to have our company name and products in front of thousands of HR professionals that might not otherwise ever hear about LatPro and what we have to offer the recruiting and diversity areas of companies. It also adds a personal touch to meet long-time clients or new prospective customers face-to-face. Being an international company, my sales team operates mainly via telephone and email; however, these conferences offer the best opportunity to meet many people in person in one place over a short amount of time. If you are interested in what LatPro has to offer your company, and would like to meet us at the Annual SHRM show at the end of this month, give me a call or send me an email and I’ll send you one of our complimentary Free Expo Passes. The Annual Conference is June 22-24 in Chicago.

 

Hope to see you in Chicago!