4 ms·

> Well, first of all you need to be fluent in three or four languages My understanding is that English to CEFRL level B1 was mandatory to work at a multi-natio

> Well, first of all you need to be fluent in three or four languages My understanding is that English to CEFRL level B1 was mandatory to work at a multi-national company. Are there other languages required?

pvaldes 10y ago
Yes, it happens. In any case 500 millions of people have spanish as native language in the world so "mandatory" is a relative term. You will need chinese to work in China, and spanish or portuguese to work in South-America. If you don't speak Catalan and live in Cataluña you just will never finish the middle school. Or if you want to work for the administration you will be ostracised or directly banned for working for the public, just because you are "an subhuman stubborn charnego". If you born in Euskadi and then go to Barcelona for work, you need to be able to speak fluently four languages (spanish, english, vasque and catalan) just to start talking about having a job. If this guy move to Galicia later, will need to learn the Galizian language also. Oh, If your foreign language in the middle school was french, and a lot of spanish people still studied french in this generation, you will not graduate unless you speak French. If you want as adult to work for a german company you will need a little deutsch of course to be competitive in the job interview. But the worst stupid thing is that most of the time to be fluent or not is not necessary at all for the job because some kind of problems can be solved in any language and because human brain can fill the communication gaps easily. Is just that is trendy to ask for this. For some jobs you will need to be "fluent" also in more languages: C, Ruby, Java, Python... Don't worry. They still will say that you are "unskilled" and will want to pay you in peanuts.
- throwaway_9191 10y ago
  Oh please, spare the HN crowd of your anti-Catalan obsessions. Or, on second thought, please continue to educate the community on the anti-Catalan sentiment that is unfortunately so common throughout Spain. > If you don't speak Catalan and live in Cataluña you just will never finish the middle school. Or you will learn Catalan which is kinda the fucking point of education? Boo-hoo, Catalonians want kids to learn Catalan if they are going to live in Catalonia! By the way Spanish is mandatory too, why won't you find a problem with that? > Or if you want to work for the administration you will be ostracised > Is just that is trendy to ask for this. Try getting a job in the public administration in Spain without speaking Spanish, in France without speaking French, in Italy without speaking Italian, in the UK without speaking English... see the pattern? Should we give up our right to address our public administration in our own language just to please non-Catalan Spaniards? > because you are "an subhuman stubborn charnego" Your comment depicts the Catalonian society as overtly xenophobic. This is an extremely offensive and unfair characterization of Catalonian society as millions of native Spanish speakers living here can certify. You are either completely misinformed about Catalonia, or spreading lies deliberately (both being extremely common within Spain). Fortunately support for independence is growing fast. Hopefully once we are independent we won't have to endure this sort of bs anymore.
  - pvaldes 10y ago
    > Try getting a job in the public administration in Spain without speaking Spanish, in France without speaking French, in Italy without speaking Italian, in the UK without speaking English... see the pattern? Yes, I see it, and is not the same as you think. Would be, "Try getting a job in the public administration in Spain without speaking Spanish AND catalan, in France without speaking French AND Patóis, in Italy without speaking Italian AND Lombard, in the UK without speaking English AND Gaelic"... see the pattern? Duplicated effort, same result. But in Argentina the same guy could use the extra time to learn other things, that maybe could be even useful for their employers.
    - throwaway_9191 10y ago
      Again, you mirror the Spanish public opinion very well. The pattern is clear: you only respect state backed cultures, my culture and language are mere nuisances that waste people's time. That's one of the main reasons we need to break away from Spain ASAP. Before it can complete the cultural genocide it has repeatedly attempted during the last 3 centuries.
      - pvaldes 10y ago
        I'll hire the Argentinian. Looks like a less problematic fit. Maybe this could be one of the problems here?.
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
        throwaway_9191 10y ago
        So people who know more languages are now a problem. Please, stop it.
- wallflower 10y ago
  > If you don't speak Catalan and live in Cataluña you just will never finish the middle school. My Catalan friends exclusively spoke Spanish at home to their kids. Their son who just started Kindergarten is struggling right now but his older sister picked Catalan up to fluency after 1-2 years, so they are not worried.
- collyw 10y ago
  Rubbish. I have been working in Barcelona for 8 years. I speak English as my first language and crappy Spanish considering the amount of time I have been here. No Catalan required.
  - pvaldes 10y ago
    Thus, you are not in this group of unemployed spaniards that was the reason of this post in the first time. Congratulations, you are neither in the first group, nor in the second. (And if your spanish is "crappy" after 8 years living in Spain you should wonder if there is a hidden reason for this that you didn't noticed before. What if your company moves or if the job of your dreams opens in Mexico DF, Buenos Aires or Sevilla in the next year?) Again, It depends on the context and the job; and for some context, provinces and jobs, to speak three languages or more is required for a spaniard trying to find a job, because you can't have a degree otherwise.

pvaldes 10y ago

Yes, it happens. In any case 500 millions of people have spanish as native language in the world so "mandatory" is a relative term. You will need chinese to work in China, and spanish or portuguese to work in South-America. If you don't speak Catalan and live in Cataluña you just will never finish the middle school. Or if you want to work for the administration you will be ostracised or directly banned for working for the public, just because you are "an subhuman stubborn charnego". If you born in Euskadi and then go to Barcelona for work, you need to be able to speak fluently four languages (spanish, english, vasque and catalan) just to start talking about having a job. If this guy move to Galicia later, will need to learn the Galizian language also. Oh, If your foreign language in the middle school was french, and a lot of spanish people still studied french in this generation, you will not graduate unless you speak French. If you want as adult to work for a german company you will need a little deutsch of course to be competitive in the job interview. But the worst stupid thing is that most of the time to be fluent or not is not necessary at all for the job because some kind of problems can be solved in any language and because human brain can fill the communication gaps easily. Is just that is trendy to ask for this. For some jobs you will need to be "fluent" also in more languages: C, Ruby, Java, Python... Don't worry. They still will say that you are "unskilled" and will want to pay you in peanuts.

throwaway_9191 10y ago
Oh please, spare the HN crowd of your anti-Catalan obsessions. Or, on second thought, please continue to educate the community on the anti-Catalan sentiment that is unfortunately so common throughout Spain. > If you don't speak Catalan and live in Cataluña you just will never finish the middle school. Or you will learn Catalan which is kinda the fucking point of education? Boo-hoo, Catalonians want kids to learn Catalan if they are going to live in Catalonia! By the way Spanish is mandatory too, why won't you find a problem with that? > Or if you want to work for the administration you will be ostracised > Is just that is trendy to ask for this. Try getting a job in the public administration in Spain without speaking Spanish, in France without speaking French, in Italy without speaking Italian, in the UK without speaking English... see the pattern? Should we give up our right to address our public administration in our own language just to please non-Catalan Spaniards? > because you are "an subhuman stubborn charnego" Your comment depicts the Catalonian society as overtly xenophobic. This is an extremely offensive and unfair characterization of Catalonian society as millions of native Spanish speakers living here can certify. You are either completely misinformed about Catalonia, or spreading lies deliberately (both being extremely common within Spain). Fortunately support for independence is growing fast. Hopefully once we are independent we won't have to endure this sort of bs anymore.
- pvaldes 10y ago
  > Try getting a job in the public administration in Spain without speaking Spanish, in France without speaking French, in Italy without speaking Italian, in the UK without speaking English... see the pattern? Yes, I see it, and is not the same as you think. Would be, "Try getting a job in the public administration in Spain without speaking Spanish AND catalan, in France without speaking French AND Patóis, in Italy without speaking Italian AND Lombard, in the UK without speaking English AND Gaelic"... see the pattern? Duplicated effort, same result. But in Argentina the same guy could use the extra time to learn other things, that maybe could be even useful for their employers.
  - throwaway_9191 10y ago
    Again, you mirror the Spanish public opinion very well. The pattern is clear: you only respect state backed cultures, my culture and language are mere nuisances that waste people's time. That's one of the main reasons we need to break away from Spain ASAP. Before it can complete the cultural genocide it has repeatedly attempted during the last 3 centuries.
    - pvaldes 10y ago
      I'll hire the Argentinian. Looks like a less problematic fit. Maybe this could be one of the problems here?.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - throwaway_9191 10y ago
        So people who know more languages are now a problem. Please, stop it.
wallflower 10y ago
> If you don't speak Catalan and live in Cataluña you just will never finish the middle school. My Catalan friends exclusively spoke Spanish at home to their kids. Their son who just started Kindergarten is struggling right now but his older sister picked Catalan up to fluency after 1-2 years, so they are not worried.
collyw 10y ago
Rubbish. I have been working in Barcelona for 8 years. I speak English as my first language and crappy Spanish considering the amount of time I have been here. No Catalan required.
- pvaldes 10y ago
  Thus, you are not in this group of unemployed spaniards that was the reason of this post in the first time. Congratulations, you are neither in the first group, nor in the second. (And if your spanish is "crappy" after 8 years living in Spain you should wonder if there is a hidden reason for this that you didn't noticed before. What if your company moves or if the job of your dreams opens in Mexico DF, Buenos Aires or Sevilla in the next year?) Again, It depends on the context and the job; and for some context, provinces and jobs, to speak three languages or more is required for a spaniard trying to find a job, because you can't have a degree otherwise.