Spanish speaking employees?????

[turfmagazine]

I certainly agree with that. We have an in-common language and people should use it. That's why -- in TURF -- we are now publishing at least one article a month in English and in Spanish. The idea is that Hispanic workers can compare the Spanish with the English and get better at the English.

[Waterscapes By Design]

Originally Posted by turfmagazine

I certainly agree with that. We have an in-common language and people should use it. That's why -- in TURF -- we are now publishing at least one article a month in English and in Spanish. The idea is that Hispanic workers can compare the Spanish with the English and get better at the English.

Is that really the reason why you print an article in Spanish? Or are you guys just being business minded and broadening your horizons to the growing population of Spanish speaking owners?

Not challenging you here, I just dont believe that many people are gonna compare the articles English or Spanish, maybe take a poll to see how many people do that.....And, that is a real problem I see, less and less Spanish speaking individuals want to learn English when they are comfortable in their own lil worlds here in the U.S. You cant deny that, why do you think they usually hang out in their own lil sections of town?? If they arent forced to pick up the language they are not gonna need/want to learn it...In my opinion your just perpetuating the problem by giving into them.....But hey its just business and thats more money to you guys and the people paying for ad space right....

[crawdad]

Originally Posted by Lawnworks

Well that is really the way it should be, BUT welcome to reality. In my experiences, if you want somebody to show up for work, have a great attitude, work long hours, and work hard all day... you hire hispanics. If you really want to be productive and communicate well... you learn spanish or you hire a bilengual crew leader. This is not really a political decision for me, it is a decision that affects the bottom line and day in and day out.

So before you guys are qualified to tell other seasoned business owners how they should run there business, maybe you should actually hire employees.

"Seasoned business operators." That's funny.
I remember you, you're the guy who said "White people suck" and told me I was "not qualified" to call you a racist.

[HOOLIE]

Originally Posted by turfmagazine

I certainly agree with that. We have an in-common language and people should use it. That's why -- in TURF -- we are now publishing at least one article a month in English and in Spanish. The idea is that Hispanic workers can compare the Spanish with the English and get better at the English.

I know you have good intentions BUT it is the proliferation of things in Spanish that keeps many of these guys from learning English. There's not much motivation to learn English for many of them if everything is offered to them in Spanish as well.

You rarely run into someone of another nationality (at least around here) that doesn't have a decent command of English...that's because everything is not offered in Swahili, Arabic, Farsi, etc... They are forced to learn the language to get by here.

[turfmagazine]

I take your point and don't disagree. Thing is, we asked a bunch of folks about this approach and got a consensus. This is why the Spanish version is printed beside the English version.

English has a lot of words specific to industries and tasks. They don't literally translate -- like if you had a Spanish/English dictionary. With the 2 versions of an article in the magazine, the hope is that the Spanish speaking person can get more used to the use of certian words in English to communicate ideas specifically in our industry.

[Waterscapes By Design]

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[IRRITECH]

Been in the business for over 15 years and have never!! had better employees. Reliable, hardworking, etc. Learn some of the language and your labor isues are no longer THE issue.

[fiveoboy01]

Well I don't have any employees. I doubt I'll need any next season.

I hope to get to the point in 2-3 years that I will need one or two.

White or mexican, I don't care, as long as they are good workers.

I will take every possible step to be sure they are legal citizens.

And, they WILL speak english, and fluently. I'm not going to learn Spanish so I can communicate with my employee(s). They will speak MY language, or not be hired by me, period.

As far as printing a two identical columns in TURF, well I just don't agree that it is helping spanish-speakers to learn english.

We have enough coddling of illegals here with everyone trying to saturate our culture with the Spanish language.

The REAL way to encourage them to learn english would be to NOT print any Spanish columns. That way, IF(big if) they wanted to be able to read the columns, they'd learn english.

[mountain man]

Originally Posted by corey4671

I don't get it. WHY should WE as AMERICANS be forced to learn a foriegn language?If we were to go to Mexico, do you really think folks there would bend over backwards to learn English just to acomodate us?

Go to Cancun, Acapulco, Puerta Vallarta, and any other tourist spot. Many learn and speak English very well.

[mountain man]

I think language barrier is a problem only if you make it a problem. Before I learned Spanish, I would use phrases such as "usas la maquina roja". Actually, I started by pointing and then learned the phrases.

I have found the average attention span for training in this business (English or Spanish) is about five maybe ten minutes. Persistent and consistent message is the key. Each day I would train a little more and a little more. Now all our employees understand our basic systems and often when a new employee comes in the others will do much of the training in their native language for us.

We do route sheets in English or Spanish depending on the crew. Our office manager does not speak or understand Spanish. She has a list of key words - cortar, limpiar, regar, derecha, izuqierda, etc - that she plugs in to the route sheets. This solves the communication barrier almost all of the time.

I recently completed our H2B forms for next year. I look forward to the guys that will be coming in this spring. Some interesting items looking back over the years. The only ones to flunk a drug test - Americans. The only ones to try and steal customers - Americans. The only ones to try and illegaly file for unemployement benefits - Americans. The only ones to have wages garnished by the state - Americans. The ones to catch a truck on fire - Americans and Mexicans (separate incidents LOL). The ones to help win safety awards - Americans and Mexicans. The ones to pay lots of taxes - Americans and Mexicans. The ones responsible for our growth and profitability - Americans and Mexicans.