The Observer Newspapers |

June 20, 2008

Requiring Spanish Skills Not Discrimination

To the editor:

In his letter to the editor ("Spanish Requirements Discriminate Against English Speakers," The Observer, June 13) Philip Jones decried "reverse discrimination" because some employers have chosen to require that employees in certain positions understand and speak Spanish.

He is ignoring the reality that this is a multi-lingual region and that businesses have a right to hire workers who will satisfy the communications needs of their customers. Unlike race, gender, national origin and—to some extent—religion, language is not a protected classification. It is a communications skill. Shouldn't a business be allowed to require knowledge of sign language to satisfy its deaf customers? Shouldn't Volkswagen be allowed to require that their receptionists speak both English and German? You certainly wouldn't want to require that companies needing C programmers hire people who only know COBOL.

Mr. Jones makes the assertion that there should be no monetary incentive for Spanish-speaking employees in the Town of Herndon, implying that interpreters ought to be used instead. I doubt that such a bonus exists, but when one considers that language is a skill, there should be nothing wrong with paying people a bit more for a skill that improves performance in the job. It has to be more cost-efficient to hire a bilingual person than to drag in a second person every time there is a need, and it's better customer service, too.

Rather than teaching our children to cry discrimination because they don't have the skills needed for a particular job, it would be better to teach them to seek the skills they need and to adapt the skills they have.

Bruce A. Johnson

Herndon