Archive for the ‘Human Resources’ Category

Incorporating Language Support At Work

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

This morning I was reading an article about McDonald’s and how they help their workers to acquire language skills while on the job.  The article mentioned a program called English Under The Arches and explained that the company was being recognized by the Migration Policy Institute for its efforts.

Companies that provide this type of training really help make their workers more productive.  One Resident Care Giver that we trained found that her accent was often a trigger that caused frustrations and even outbursts from elderly patients.  Getting Accent Reduction Training made her job easier and more enjoyable.  Another client struggled with email communication.  She felt she often had to preface her email requests by explaining that English was not her first language since she knew that sometimes her requests seemed too direct and caused tension.  For her, the Writing Course has given her some set patterns to soften her tone.  She doesn’t need to explain her weakness anymore.

We would just like to thank our most recent corporate client, Royal Bank of Canada, for aknowledging the value of incorporating language support at work. RBC is joining our ever growing list of companies who value the skills immigrants bring to their workplace.

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Pronunciation Problems at Work

Friday, November 6th, 2009

I came across this letter to advice columnist Lily Garcia in The Washington Post.  It is about how managers struggle to deal with pronunciation problems at work. He wrote:

I’ve been the manager of a small team for about four years, and they are usually low-maintenance, so I haven’t yet had to deal with many issues that I don’t know how to handle. We give presentations to and interact with hundreds of our colleagues every week. Our newest team member has a great personality, is very intelligent, is well-liked and he gets great reviews for the one-on-one presentations that he delivers. There are some aspects of his group presentations that need work: He’s easily distracted by off-topic or long-answer questions, sometimes not as organized as he should be and sometimes gets thrown off or confused about topics with which he is otherwise very familiar. I feel confident that I can work with him to improve these issues. Every time I have given feedback to this employee, he has been grateful, not at all defensive and glad to have a chance to improve.

However, there’s one issue that I don’t know how to address. He mispronounces words that come up a LOT in our sessions (or uses the wrong word): “Libary” instead of “libRary” and “mines” instead of “mine” are a couple of examples that come to mind. I have received a few course evaluations in which the students have mentioned the mispronunciations, but I think it will hurt his feelings to tell him about this. Do you agree or is that something I would tell him?

I’m having trouble with this because it feels impolite to correct someone’s pronunciation. I know it will be helpful to him in the long run, if he is going to continue working in the corporate world (this is his first corporate job), but I don’t know how to bring it up.

His letter reflects a common problem that many companies have with regards to internationally trained professionals that they have hired.  I notice that the writer does not specify this worker as a person who did not have English as a first language.  Many managers may fear dealing with this issue directly because of discrimination issues that arise when a person’s English becomes a target.  I mean, if English wasn’t a problem in the job interview, why is it now?

In our experience, the problem becomes a concern when the worker is promoted and thus becomes accountable to a higher standard of preformance.  Although we have worked with many companies, there are still many managers who are not aware of any accent reduction service.  Our service can address the manager’s problem and provide the professional support needed by the employee.

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A Canadian Accent Pays Off

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Many New Canadians have encountered the hurtle of trying to prove themselves qualified during an initial phone job interview, all to have the call end quicker than expected, mostly because of their strong accent.

“Some of these people are often the most qualified candidates, yet a strong foreign accent is still the number one barrier in hiring candidates,” says Jennifer Madigan, an accent reduction specialist at the L2 Accent Reduction Centre, a service that helps Canadian immigrants speak with a clearer accent in about 10to 20 lessons.

Services like accent reduction courses and image consulting are growing in B.C. as immigrants find ways to become more aggressive in job hunting and work place skills.  About 30% of British Columbia’s Lower Mainland has a foreign accent, and helping to reduce it is paying off for people looking to relate better in the work place.  “People no longer give me a confused look at work when I’m trying to explain something,” says Alexei Bobyrev, a Russian immigrant who works for Ballard Power.  Alexi took a course from L2 Accent Reduction Centre last year to help him communicate better at his current job.

Jennifer, who works with  many corporations and government agencies that pay for employees to take her lessons, expects that with the economy becoming tighter, Canadian immigrants will continue tobecome even more aggressive in this job market.  “I am always amazed by many new immigrants that will do whatever it takes to succeed in Canada,” Jennifer says.

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Accent Discrimination

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Have you been a victim of accent discrimination? We always say that there is nothing wrong with having an foreign accent.  The problem is if others struggle to hear what you are saying.  A lot of our clients recognize when they have a problem because people constantly  ask for clarification about what they said.

Some people ask, “what is the worst accent to have?’  I have to say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.  While it’s true that many accents are used in discriminatory ways, not everyone adheres to the stereotypical ideas related to an accent.  Recently, David Cameron, a British politician, received some flak by making a point with a German accent. ( Click here)

I also heard a report on talk radio last week that according to a marketing research survey, Americans tend to trust a British accent more.  Any search of the term accent will show that some people find certain accents sexy, and desirable, but at the same time those same accents will be made fun of in countless youtube videos.

Accent discrimination is a severe problem in the workplace when an accent is not impeding communication.  This Government of Canada advertisement, campaigning to hire an immigrant,  is a great example of accent discrimination. (Click here)

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Comfort Zone

Monday, May 25th, 2009

Do you know your accent comfort zone? Have you ever found yourself in this situation?  You’re waiting in line to buy something, or waiting in line to get on the bus, but there is a person in front of you asking for something and the clerk or the bus driver can’t understand what that person is saying because of his or her accent.  Then you step in to clarify and say, “He wants to know if you go to Burrard Station.”   Afterward, both people look at you with eyes that seem to say “How did you understand?”

I grew up in the Ottawa Valley, which is known for having a distinct accent.  In my youth, I had a lot of part-time jobs that forced me to understand some of the heaviest accents.  I recall one customer at the gas station.  He’d always ask for ten dollars worth of gas but would just pull up to the pump and say “Ten.” When I finished he would pass me a ten dollar bill and say “Thanks.”  But to be honest, his ten and his thanks sounded the same to me.  At the grocery store, one of my co-workers loved referring customers to me that no one could understand.  “Oh, ask Jeff that is in his department.”  Then I would find out that the customer was wondering what time the delivery truck was leaving.

Later on when I went to university, I had a Chinese landlady.  She used to give me small renovation jobs on some of her 16 properties.  I couldn’t understand her very well at first, but after working for her I picked up what she was saying too.  Whenever she called our house, my roommates would make me talk to her because I was the only one who understood her.

Now that I’ve been working with people from all over the world for the last 10 years, my comfort zone for understanding others has gotten quite broad.  This is not the case for everyone.  There are still people who hang up on those annoying telemarketing calls with the added insult of “Call me back when you learn to speak English.”

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Name Discrimination

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Does having a foreign name cause discrimination?  A few years ago, a friend of mine, Stephanie Tong, was told by someone in administration at SFU, that she was accidentally rejected to the admissions office because of her name.  The person explained that they receive a lot of applicants into the Elementary Program who do not have the language skills required to be a model for children to learn from.

Today’s Metro News ran a front page story about how many companies do not call people in for interviews because of their foreign names.  It claimed “job hunters with English names have a 40% greater chance of landing a job interview compared to people with Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani names.”  The study was conducted by UBC.

Overall, it is difficult to say if this is done intentionally or not.  I was wondering if anyone has a similar story.

By the way, my friend sucessfully graduated from UBC’s elementary program.  She is now married and no longer a Tong.

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Complaints Over Heavy Accents

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

I recently read an article about why JP Morgan and Delta Airlines had moved their call centers out of India. They cited too many customers were complaining about heavy accents which led to poor customer service. That made me think of how the average person responds to different accents.

In one of my favorite TV programs, Arrested Development, Michael Bluth fails to detect that his girlfriend is mentally challenged because of her British accent. In many movies, like my favorite Ben Stiller movie, Zoolander, the Russian accent is made fun of with the character Katinka.

Depending on our level of exposure to different foreign accents, we may or may not be able to understand clearly what others are saying. If our exposure is limited to TV and pop culture, we may view a foreign accent in an either negative or positive light.

I think this is what happened in the cases of JP Morgan and Delta Airlines. Unfortunately, the Indian accent is not only one that few people have had a lot of exposure with, it is also an accent then is often portrayed jokingly in pop culture.

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