Monday, March 27, 2006

El building inspector has arrived

Una Invitación para solicitar empleo con el condado de Lane
La Diversidad es una de las claves para el futuro éxito del Condado de Lane. Nosotros(as), quienes trabajamos para el gobierno, estamos a cargo de proveer servicios gubernamentales efectivos para todos. La Diversidad, el respeto, y el entendimiento de la integridad y valor de todas las culturas, la gente, y estilos de vida es y continuará siendo una buena manera de conducir nuestros asuntos (Póliza de Diversidad LM 2.390)

Huh?

An Invitation to apply for a job at Lane County
Diversity is a key to the future success of Lane County. We who work for Lane County government are charged with providing effective government services for everyone. Diversity, and the respect for and understanding of the integrity and worth of all culture, peoples and lifestyles is today and will continue to be simply good business (Diversity Policy LM 2.390).

Oh ok. Lane County wants to make sure that if you are applying for a job with them that you don't need to speak English. Spanish is just fine. Like say you want to be a building inspector.

Building Inspector 1: Inspects foundation, cement, framing, plastering, plumbing and heating installations and a large variety of other routine building system elements. Checks stud, joist, rafter spacing and other structural member factors. Examines grade, quality and treatment of lumber, cement, lath, wire and composition. Assures proper and safe installations of routine building systems....

Really, what would you need English for in a job like that? I would feel perfectly safe being on the top floor of a building inspected by someone who doesn't speak English. In fact, I think that the Lane County commissioners should all have their offices on the top floor of a building that was inspected by such a person.

Actually, I can see that Lane County is also hiring for Parole and Probation officers so maybe they do need workers who speak Spanish...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Daniel it's good to know that anyone that doen't speak english would have any of these qualities to be a building inspector, because they must not have any buildings in foreign countries

Anonymous said...

Yes, but they may have to speak English to communicate with the majority of their co-workers who DON'T SPEAK SPANISH! Language has nothing to do with their abilities.

Anonymous said...

Do you really think that a county would post a job, if they thought that the majority of workers wouldn't be able to speak spanish?
That's why being able to speak spanish in the workplace is so convenient.

Kaelri said...

Well, lesse here.

Inspects foundation, cement, framing, plastering, plumbing and heating installations and a large variety of other routine building system elements.

As we all know, the inhabitants of the Indus civilization, who invented the first plumbing and aqueduct systems about fifty-three hundred years ago, spoke English. Since then, the language remained the object of a closely-guarded gnosticism passed down through generations upon generations of borgeois architects, as the art nomadically traversed the lands of the fading Greek civilization before making its new home in the British Isles. It was not until three millennia in the future, after the epic acquisition of the precious English protractor from an archaeological dig six leages west of Londinium that the rest of eastern-hemisphere civilization gained the secret of building a gravitationally-stable edifice.

Examines grade, quality and treatment of lumber, cement, lath, wire and composition.

The idea of using diametrically-severed plants to make stuff was similarly alien to the world until the British King George's gift of a handcrafted oak tableware set to Queen Isabella of Spain, which included the earliest known production of the six-pronged spork. Cement, meanwhile, has enjoyed a prolonged existence as an open-source building material stolen by a lost Sumerian shepherd during the hectic Dholaviran occupation of Harappa.

As to wire, every German Schüler now knows full well that George Ohm was nothing more than a closet Angliophile.

Anonymous said...

A little education can be very dangerous.

Daniel said...

I see a lot of people who look like they want a surgeon who doesn't speak
English to operation on them using machines, co-workers, and tools that are all in English.

BEAR said...

Gee whiz, celery, I am sooo.....unimpressed.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if all of the codes and code updates that an inspector needs to read to be able to do the job are written in Spanish? Speaking is one thing but if they can't read the job posting in English . . .

Kaelri said...

" I see a lot of people who look like they want a surgeon who doesn't speak
English to operation on them using machines, co-workers, and tools that are all in English."


The act of learning English is not a proprietary American feat of intellect.

Bear: does "celery" refer (botchedly) to my screenname? If so, I should inform you that I find celery to be a hateful vegetable, and that "cherry tomato" would be far more agreeable.

R Huse said...

Lets just go back in time a little bit. Remember when Americans were regarded as uncouth brutes when traveling to foreign countries? The typical example was some fat guy in shorts who would attempt to communicate with the denizens of Paris or wherever by talking ever slower and louder. Now look where we are. These idiots take it a step further. Not only do they refuse to speak the language of this country, but we kow tow to them by making it ever easier. Why the hell should we be providing building inspectors to people who are too lazy to learn the language? If you are a home owner working on your own house and don’t speak English, then arrange to have someone who does translate for you when the inspector arrives. If you are a contractor and don’t speak English, then learn the damn language. Sorry if it’s too hard for you, that’s the way it works everywhere else in the world, get used to it.

Now imagine once again our fat Bermuda shorted tourist. What if he came back from his trip and said, “hey, you know what? I tried to get work there and they wouldn’t provide me with English speakers at every turn, can you believe it?” How much sympathy would you have for him? Would you say he was an idiot for expecting to work in a country and refusing to learn the language? Why do you have sympathy for people who speak Spanish and refuse to learn the language? Do you assume everyone who speaks Spanish is too stupid to learn? Or is it just a white guilt thing?

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