5 ms·

I guess he had a couple of courses at school and called himself "fluent". Umm, another possibility is that he learned Castilian, and the people in your office

I guess he had a couple of courses at school and called himself "fluent". Umm, another possibility is that he learned Castilian, and the people in your office grew up speaking some Latin American version. Just the other day a native speaker from Spain told me of his being completely flummoxed by the border guards trying to casually chat him up on his entry to the U.S.

crusso 14y ago
Nope. The people I worked with were almost all from Spain. They spoke Castilian. My main exposure before them was always from Latin American sources. I LOVE the way Castilian people speak since it's so clear. We had Latin American folks in the office too. They never had a problem speaking with each other. Maybe a border guard speaking broken Spanish confused someone, but this woman was just trying to ask basic Spanish 101 type questions. The follow-up to the story is that I came across the same candidate's resume 6 months later. He had changed the "fluent in Spanish" to something like "basic Spanish".
- toomuchcoffee 14y ago
  He had changed the "fluent in Spanish" to something like "basic Spanish". OK, there's no doubt you're right about this one poor fellow. But as a minor point of detail: Maybe a border guard speaking broken Spanish... The border guard in this case was a native Latin American speaker. I don't speak either version of Spanish, so I'm just going by what my acquaintance said.
- gcp 14y ago
  I had a very similar experience when I was much younger, fooling myself that by not specifying how fluent I was, I wasn't lying when claiming knowledge of language X. Then I had an interview much like the one you described and learned that "misleading statement" and "lying" are close relatives. No job, but life lesson learned.
deleted 14y ago
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illuminate 14y ago
"Umm, another possibility is that he learned Castilian, and the people in your office grew up speaking some Latin American version." Someone fluent in conversational Spanish would still be able to speak the basics with a sympathetic, if skeptical interviewer.
- toomuchcoffee 14y ago
  Yeah but quite often people are thrown off balance when encountering other native speakers of a shared, large language group (but speaking a different accent or dialect) for the first time. That's all I'm saying.

crusso 14y ago

Nope. The people I worked with were almost all from Spain. They spoke Castilian. My main exposure before them was always from Latin American sources. I LOVE the way Castilian people speak since it's so clear. We had Latin American folks in the office too. They never had a problem speaking with each other. Maybe a border guard speaking broken Spanish confused someone, but this woman was just trying to ask basic Spanish 101 type questions. The follow-up to the story is that I came across the same candidate's resume 6 months later. He had changed the "fluent in Spanish" to something like "basic Spanish".

toomuchcoffee 14y ago
He had changed the "fluent in Spanish" to something like "basic Spanish". OK, there's no doubt you're right about this one poor fellow. But as a minor point of detail: Maybe a border guard speaking broken Spanish... The border guard in this case was a native Latin American speaker. I don't speak either version of Spanish, so I'm just going by what my acquaintance said.
gcp 14y ago
I had a very similar experience when I was much younger, fooling myself that by not specifying how fluent I was, I wasn't lying when claiming knowledge of language X. Then I had an interview much like the one you described and learned that "misleading statement" and "lying" are close relatives. No job, but life lesson learned.

deleted 14y ago

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illuminate 14y ago

"Umm, another possibility is that he learned Castilian, and the people in your office grew up speaking some Latin American version." Someone fluent in conversational Spanish would still be able to speak the basics with a sympathetic, if skeptical interviewer.

toomuchcoffee 14y ago
Yeah but quite often people are thrown off balance when encountering other native speakers of a shared, large language group (but speaking a different accent or dialect) for the first time. That's all I'm saying.