Turned Down and My Position Given to a "Me Speaka No"

GOMER42 · Jul 8, 2009

Sounds to me like you are dogging on these people just because you didn't get hired.

Shame on you and anyone else who finds humor in bigotry.

WoofyMutt80 · Jul 8, 2009

I shouldnt judge because who knows if they have more years under their belt than I do!

DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2009

Sorry you did not get the job. Going to "look for other qualified candidates" doesn't mean they hired people who don't speak English. Quite a jump to assume they did.

Trauma Columnist · Jul 8, 2009

I have to agree with the majority of posters: who and what are you reporting. I think it might just be time to let this go and move on.

meluhn · Jul 8, 2009

Many immigrants to this country choose not to learn English so that they don't become swept up in American culture and loose a sense of where they came from. I am of Nigerian decent and most of my culture has been lost within my immediate family, so I empathize with the concept.
I understand you may have been frustrated by the situation, but posting something like that here shows me that you have a lack of sensitivity to cultures outside of your own. As a health professional, one of our duties is to respect cultural differences. I really hope that you can work on this for the sake of your future patients.
:)

This reply just seems a little backwards to me. First of all if these people are so worried about getting swept up in American culture, why move here? If an American moved to France and refused to learn the language, he/she would be seen as arrogant for his refusal or ignorant. Because a non-American does it, it is just them choosing not to for the sake of preserving their heritage--what a load of crap. I am so sick of the double standard. We have gotten so politically correct in this country that the only people who are allowed to have a point of view are the "underdogs". If I was living in a foreign country, I would make it my business to learn the language.

Maybe these Spanish speaking people lack sensitivity to our culture. They obviously don't care enough to learn the language.

asimps13 · Jul 8, 2009

sorry jdcurly, totally disagree.....i believe that if immigrants/future citizens want to come to this country (especially work here!) they should at least TRY to learn the english language..if someone doesent like the culture here go back home..that is like me saying "i am moving to italy but i will never learn an italian word and never eat pizza just because i dont like their culture but i totally want to live there".and it is not fair for the citizens who do work here, that should not have to know any other language than english, get discriminated all the time (obviously besides for translator jobs) and get turned down......i see it all the time...no wonder why our economy sucks!! but of coorifice, if it was me going to another country and i choose not to learn their language i would get discriminated like crazy!!!!

caliotter3 · Jul 8, 2009

I am also a person who understands a language other than English and I never let on. I am not to be offended when the predominant language is used to denigrate, insult, and humiliate me? Oh, no. I am forced to be "culturally sensitive". Hogwash!

Sun_danc3rRN · Jul 8, 2009

The thing that you forget is that the US has no official language. English is a more common language in the US, but not officially. Because in the US we are supposed to be free from oppression and ridicule, a lot of people do immigrate here. They also find lots of pockets of people who speak the same native language they do and are able to retain their culture. This is a good thing to me, considering that being an American has no real culture of it's own. One of our jobs as Nurses, CNA's, etc, it to respect cultural diversity. We seem to be so willing to jump on bandwagons to tell people, "hey you are in america, speak english", but fail to realize that there were more languages than English spoken here prior to the states being formed. This loss of culture for Native people on this continent is atrocious in my opinion. How dare we tell anyone, "learn OUR language", when we(White people of European heritage) took that away from every native people we encountered?

ybq2008 · Jul 8, 2009

This reply just seems a little backwards to me. First of all if these people are so worried about getting swept up in American culture, why move here? If an American moved to France and refused to learn the language, he/she would be seen as arrogant for his refusal or ignorant. Because a non-American does it, it is just them choosing not to for the sake of preserving their heritage--what a load of crap. I am so sick of the double standard. We have gotten so politically correct in this country that the only people who are allowed to have a point of view are the "underdogs". If I was living in a foreign country, I would make it my business to learn the language.
Maybe these Spanish speaking people lack sensitivity to our culture. They obviously don't care enough to learn the language.

My point in posting was to provide some insight. You can feel/think however you choose, I simply posted to share some potential reasoning. Half of the problem with cultural sensitivity in this country is that everyone spends too much time trying to be right and not enough time trying to hear each other out.

I will say that people do what they can to survive. Obviously, if not learning English is working for the immigrant, so be it. Some are here for political asylum and some are here to acclimatize and become apart of American culture. But, at the end of the day, it's the employer and employee's prerogative, so long as patient care isn't compromised (which no one has proved that it has been in this situation).

sorry jdcurly, totally disagree.....i believe that if immigrants/future citizens want to come to this country (especially work here!) they should at least TRY to learn the english language..if someone doesent like the culture here go back home..that is like me saying "i am moving to italy but i will never learn an italian word and never eat pizza just because i dont like their culture but i totally want to live there".and it is not fair for the citizens who do work here, that should not have to know any other language than english, get discriminated all the time (obviously besides for translator jobs) and get turned down......i see it all the time...no wonder why our economy sucks!! but of coorifice, if it was me going to another country and i choose not to learn their language i would get discriminated like crazy!!!!

You are entitled to your opinion as well. Thanks for sharing! I hope the OP gets what she needed from this thread

Sun_danc3rRN · Jul 8, 2009

I am also a person who understands a language other than English and I never let on. I am not to be offended when the predominant language is used to denigrate, insult, and humiliate me? Oh, no. I am forced to be "culturally sensitive". Hogwash!

Your personal opinion aside, if you are working as an RN, you are getting paid to be culturally sensitive. So if the almighty dollar is what is forcing you, maybe you are in the wrong career.

araujojr · Jul 8, 2009

Hi Everyone,
I am trying not to offend those who come to this country to work hard and learn the English language. Please tell me if this is borderline discrimination or something else!
I am a CNA/HHA/Medical Assistant and I attended a job fair 2 weeks ago at a very reputable skilled nursing hospital. I am not being biased but I was the only English speaking person there. There were applicants, internal and external who BROUGHT INTERPRETERS to help fill out the application, and I-9 form, one had her son, who had to be all of 10 years old, interpret during the interview. First of all, how could the internal applicants work there if they told me, when I asked where the elevators were "Me Speaka No English". Second, this company should have seen the red flags if these people had interpreters. HELLO! Are these people going to bring their interpreters on the floor? No way because of HIPAA! Well I got interviewed and they didnt like my gap in employment (I had a medical reasons that are resolved now). I got a rejection letter the other day saying how they are going to look for other qualified candidates. I am a CNA going on 3 years with Alzheimers, LTC, Skilled, Acute care under my belt. Well I am glad I didnt get hired cuz I would have had a hell of time with the language barrier.
Please give me your feedback, I dunno if I should report this to the higher ups of this place.
Thanks!

Are you kidding me? Must be a TROLL....

araujojr · Jul 8, 2009

What is there to report? ... That you wanted a job but didn't get it? .... That many of the people at the job fair had problems with English?
In reality, you have no idea who was hired and who was not. Perhaps no one who you saw was hired. Perhaps there were other applicants you did not see. Perhaps they prefer to hire bilingual staff because that matches their patient population. Perhaps ... a lot of things.
All you really know is that you didn't get the job. You don't know who DID get the job and you don't the qualifications of anyone who was hired. So ... what is there to report?

THANK YOU!!!