Asbury Park Press, Monday August 8, 2005, Section C, Page 1-2

Workers Who Speak another Language Are Quite Valuable to Employers in Many Fields

By Dennis P. Carmody, Associate Business Editor

Wendy Minguela was hired to be a receptionist.

That was her role when she was taken on by the Lakewood office of the law firm of Harrison & Christos. But her ability to speak Spanish soon led to new responsibilities. Before long, she was helping her bosses communicate with Spanish-speaking clients, translating from both English and the more obscure bits of legal jargon.

"One little word can make a big difference, especially when you're testifying under oath," said Minguela, a 35-year-old Manchester resident who came to the United States from Puerto Rico when she was 5 years old and grew up speaking Spanish at home.

Today, she's the manager of the Lakewood office, in a town with a sizable Hispanic population, and most of her day is spent dealing with Spanish-speaking clients, either by speaking with them or writing letters. She estimates she speaks with about 15 to 20 Spanish-speaking clients each day.

"We work with a lot of undocumented aliens," Minguela said. "A lot of them come from rural areas and are barely proficient at Spanish, let along English. People can take advantage of them, so they really form a relationship with us."

The modern wave of immigration has made the ability to converse in other languages a crucial tool for businesses in a variety of fields. Workers with such skills have found it's a valuable talent to have.

"People want to deal with their own kind," said Will Ismaeil, a 27-year-old Hillsborough resident and owner of Windward Travel in Red Bank. "If you keep a diverse office, then you cover the world."

In the 2000 census, more than 84,000 Monmouth County residents reported they speak a language other then English at home. That works out to 14.7 percent of the population. In Ocean County, over 52,000 people, or 10.9 percent of the population, do not speak English at home. Nationwide, nearly 47 million Americans, or 17.9 percent of the population, fall into that category.

Given those numbers, many business owners see a natural advantage in hiring workers who can speak something other than English.

That's what drove Ismaeil of Windward Travel when he hired Natalia Neves of Ocean Township. A native of Portugal, Neves can also speak Spanish, which is useful for the many Latin-American natives living in the Red Bank area who might be looking to travel back to their home countries, he said.

"We put that sign out front that said we speak Spanish, and that really expended our business big-time," Ismaeil said.

Neves, 38, who arrived in the United States when she was 2 years old, grew up in a Portuguese neighborhood in Long Branch and spoke mostly Portuguese at home. Spanish is similar enough that she can get by in it, she said.

"People are more comfortable with me explaining the rules and regulations of this crazy business (in their native language)," Neves said.

The detailed nature of travel - discussing security rules, clarifying flight information, etc. - makes knowing a different language very useful, said Ismaeil, an American who grew up learning Arabic from his Egyptian-born parents. "If I'm just selling a T-shirt, here's the price," Ismaeil said. "With travel, it's not so cut and dried."

Miriam Fostek tells a similar tale about her work as a customer service representative at the state Motor Vehicle Commission's Freehold Township office. A native of Puerto Rico, the 51-year-old Jackson resident came to the mainland as a child and grew up learning both Spanish and English.

"I grew up in both worlds," Fostek said. "I spoke Spanish at home and English at school."

She said she speaks with about five to seven people a day in Spanish, as the Freehold area has become home to many Spanish-speaking people. "We live in a country that's very diversified in terms of language," she said.

The office has five Spanish-speaking people on its staff, and they're invaluable, said William Scherer, the agent manager.

"It's good for the public, and it's also good from a security perspective," Scherer said.

For example, some people who are in this country illegally try to pass themselves off with phony documents as Puerto Ricans, who are American Citizens by birth. But the dialect of a Puerto Rican is different from someone from Mexico or other places in Latin America. A native Spanish speaker will notice that difference as quickly as an American would recognize a British accent.

"Knowing another language is like having another skill set," said William F. Hill, placement director at Monmouth University in West Long Branch. "I think it's what they call a value-added element."

Most students who major in another language plan to go into teaching Hill said. But even if they don't plan on a career in education, it's still a good thing to have on a resume, even if the employer isn't necessarily looking for that skill, he said.

"Many employers find it's more helpful than they realized," Hill said.

And it's not always just for dealing with customers. Sometimes it's for dealing with fellow workers, said Barbara Davis, owner of Barbara Davis Employment Services in Red Bank. Right now she's looking for someone with Spanish-language skills who can work as a supervisor in a warehouse staffed mostly by Spanish-speaking immigrants.

"We're finding more requirements for people with bilingual skills," said Davis, whose firm recruits supervisors and other professionals.

Retailers who work with customers who do not speak English are an obvious target for multilingual workers looking for jobs, said Frank Wyckoff, owner of Snelling Personnel Services in Eatontown, Lakewood, Freehold Township and East Brunswick. But such skills are needed in any number of industries. Mortgage lenders frequently look for Spanish-speaking workers, as do manufacturers, he said.

Fluency can make a difference, depending upon the job. A warehouse supervisor may need just enough Spanish to get workers to move boxes where they belong, Davis said. Someone working in personnel who has to explain insurance and benefits concepts to those same workers would need a better comprehension of the language, she said.

While Spanish is the language with the highest demand, it's not unheard of for companies to look for people who can speak other languages too, Davis said. For example, she recently worked with a French company that was looking for an executive for its American division who could speak French to the people in the home office. An Italian company sought a similar worker fluent in Italian, she said.

But while demand might be rising, most Americans have little linguistic training beyond long-forgotten high school classes, Davis said. "English is the world's No. 1 language," she said, referring to its common use in business and culture around the world. "It's something we're fortunate to have."

She recalled once speaking with a French executive who was surprised to find few Americans put something on their resumes noting which other languages they could speak. "The explanation is that, mostly, they don't speak any other languages," Davis said.

Wyckoff of Snelling said he's seen a small increase in the number of workers with multilingual skills. "But it still doesn't meet the demand," he said.