City Short on Spanish-Speaking Staff?
Among questions from the budget advisory committee: Are there enough Spanish speaking staff members in key departments?
The answer wasn't "yes" or "no," but instead a chart that showed a total of 54 bilingual staff members. If the city workforce is around 500, that's about 10 percent. But the Latino population of Plainfield was 25 percent in 2000 and many think it is closer to 30 or 50 percent nowadays. So it appears the proportion is low.
The chart shows just one Spanish-speaking person each in the offices of the mayor, city administrator, city clerk, tax collector, purchasing/administrative services, personnel and health. Community Relations and Social Services, Inspections, Economic Development and Fire Division each have two. Municipal Court and the Women, Infants and Children Program each have four. There are seven in Public Works, 11 in the Bilingual Day Care program and13 in the Police Division.
For offices where people stop in and find at least one person who speaks Spanish, there may not be a problem. Municipal Court has a service whereby a non-English speaker can receive translations in Spanish as well as many other languages. The scary thought to this writer is how communication takes place in emergencies such as fires, crimes and accidents.
It has been interesting over the past 25 years to see who is picking up specialized Spanish in order to conduct transactions as mundane as ordering Chinese food, for example. Not only are menus posted in two languages at a nearby restaurant, the Asian counter people can take orders and converse with customers in Spanish. Next door to me, Connolly's maintenance workers are largely Latino, with a Jamaican in charge, and I often catch an exchange that is rudimentary but sufficient to get the work assigned. Thus it seems that los bomberos might develop a vocabulary of key phrases to use at fires and police officers could pick up enough words to facilitate effective interaction in emergencies or, for that matter, even traffic stops.
Maybe this already happens. A chart with numbers does not cover the nuances of verbal communication. For example, several years ago a Guatemalan couple moved into my building and when it became apparent they had a severe roach infestation in their apartment, I tried to get roach control information in Spanish from the Health Division, but there was nothing available. I found something from a source in Texas, but then it turned out that the family spoke only one of the more than 20 indigenous languages of their homeland. Multiply that situation by the number of Central and South American countries that also have indigenous languages and the problem is evident.
Of course, many will say the answer is that all who come here to live must learn English immediately. Given the proliferation of ESL schools and classes around the city, folks are trying to do just that. But I remember feeling really sorry for one person who came to police headquarters several years ago with an emergency situation, only to be told to "come back when you speak English."
So the question of whether there are enough Spanish-speaking staff members remains up for interpretation, so to speak. Any thoughts?
--Bernice Paglia
The answer wasn't "yes" or "no," but instead a chart that showed a total of 54 bilingual staff members. If the city workforce is around 500, that's about 10 percent. But the Latino population of Plainfield was 25 percent in 2000 and many think it is closer to 30 or 50 percent nowadays. So it appears the proportion is low.
The chart shows just one Spanish-speaking person each in the offices of the mayor, city administrator, city clerk, tax collector, purchasing/administrative services, personnel and health. Community Relations and Social Services, Inspections, Economic Development and Fire Division each have two. Municipal Court and the Women, Infants and Children Program each have four. There are seven in Public Works, 11 in the Bilingual Day Care program and13 in the Police Division.
For offices where people stop in and find at least one person who speaks Spanish, there may not be a problem. Municipal Court has a service whereby a non-English speaker can receive translations in Spanish as well as many other languages. The scary thought to this writer is how communication takes place in emergencies such as fires, crimes and accidents.
It has been interesting over the past 25 years to see who is picking up specialized Spanish in order to conduct transactions as mundane as ordering Chinese food, for example. Not only are menus posted in two languages at a nearby restaurant, the Asian counter people can take orders and converse with customers in Spanish. Next door to me, Connolly's maintenance workers are largely Latino, with a Jamaican in charge, and I often catch an exchange that is rudimentary but sufficient to get the work assigned. Thus it seems that los bomberos might develop a vocabulary of key phrases to use at fires and police officers could pick up enough words to facilitate effective interaction in emergencies or, for that matter, even traffic stops.
Maybe this already happens. A chart with numbers does not cover the nuances of verbal communication. For example, several years ago a Guatemalan couple moved into my building and when it became apparent they had a severe roach infestation in their apartment, I tried to get roach control information in Spanish from the Health Division, but there was nothing available. I found something from a source in Texas, but then it turned out that the family spoke only one of the more than 20 indigenous languages of their homeland. Multiply that situation by the number of Central and South American countries that also have indigenous languages and the problem is evident.
Of course, many will say the answer is that all who come here to live must learn English immediately. Given the proliferation of ESL schools and classes around the city, folks are trying to do just that. But I remember feeling really sorry for one person who came to police headquarters several years ago with an emergency situation, only to be told to "come back when you speak English."
So the question of whether there are enough Spanish-speaking staff members remains up for interpretation, so to speak. Any thoughts?
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 12:35 AM
1 Comments:
I'd encourage widely advertised ESL classes and other means of helping residents learn English. I understand there is a period of transition, but making it easier to speak Spanish exclusively doesn't help our city or our Spanish-speaking residents in the long run -- it serves to further divide us and keep non-English speakers in less well-paying jobs.
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