Rotor

No one on this site believes you work as you are always arguing on this site

steviedeluxe

Nor me. You will notice however that often those posters who don't seem to have work, nor need it, are the biggest proponents of this "theory". Funny how you can't go far in any big city without coming across a Moroccan, a Rumanian or a South American in employment somewhere (not always the best type of job though). Maybe the Spanish are fine with hiring foreigners, but balk a little at those who don't speak the lingo or show little sign of seeking work? Just a theory...

jackytoo

Yes foreigners are in employment that the spanish don't want to do. As the spanish say you can hire two romanians for one spanish. I thought we were refering to white collar/professional workers.

cricketman

The Spanish obviously dont want to run international market research projects then

Oh and I have a friend who is an industrial engineer, maybe they dont want to do that?

And another who works in Spanish state schools teaching English to little 5 year olds...

JLFS

I know an English/Italian girl who works for an translating agency, who have contracts with lots of big companies.
She has Italian parents, and has studied Italian, but as her native tongue is english, the only work the agency ever give her to do, is to translate from Italian INTO ENGLISH.

They have someone equally as competent as her to translate from English INTO ITALIAN.
She said that any translation agency worth their salt only lets translators translate INTO their native language, as slogans etc, cannot be done by "foreigners" and achieve the same impact in correctness and meaning as a native speaker.

HBG

I know lots of British expats who work for Spanish companies, banks, hospitals, schools and the like, but they have to prove they are better than the Spanish applicants.

From what I’ve seen of them, they invariably are. Apart from that cashier at Mercadona who comes from Bolton.

cricketman

Well yes, my OH only translates English INTO Spanish

The only exception is if you have done one of the specialist translation degrees like the highly accredited one at Salamanca uni where you get tested on what you can translate to.

I dont know if the junta used accredited translators, I assume not.

I used professional translators quite often in London, including to translate from English into Spanish, I quite often had to send the translation back because it was rubbish. Then the second copy would always be good. I think it was because they assumed noone would be able to check their work. Sad but true!

cricketman

To get any job nowadays you have to prove you are better than the rest

Doesnt matter what nationality you are

Lenox

I've been here forty years and speak Spanish. I've written articles in Spanish for various newspapers and, what I do, is I make sure a Spanish friend checks them for mistakes or poor flow. That way, it's readable. That way, no one is going to laugh at my work and say 'what a wally'.
Yet, here we have a 5.4 million euro cock-up with any tourist who reads it in English saying - 'Cor, what a loada plonkers'. Is this what the Junta de Andalucía really wants with its tourist site (sorry, 'portal')?
A technical translation is one thing, but an article or a story needs to be parsed rather than reduced to its English equivalent.
So much for translation.
As far as native anglosaxon Europeans who live in Spain, second or third generation, of course there are a few who are integrated and work in white collar jobs. Generally in Madrid and other cities.
But they are as rare as hen's teeth in the pueblos. How many of your town hall employees, or local cops, or bank managers, or taxi drivers or school teachers or even Butano delivery men are British? A fair and balanced proportion?
And so what, you say, it's their country. And I say, no its not. It's ours too.

agoreira

Worse than that, I think he thinks he is the only one that speaks Spanish! And this is the man that told us his wife "past" her driving test, so hope is Spanish is better than his English!

JLFS

This has more of a ring of truth about it than saying that there are not any British qualified to do the job in Spain.
With all the Anglo/English families about there MUST be some qualified.

As eveyone knows it is the "why should anyone outside make money when we can keep it all amongst ourseleves" method of tendering that is often used in these situations.

steviedeluxe

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! (why it's best to never criticise another's English - easy to get caught out)

agoreira

Are you saying there is nothing to hold back foreigners? Are the Spanish so much better than all the immigrants?
We frequently see quoted the huge numbers of immigrants in Spain, but I think the almost complete absence of black/immigrant MP's, police, people on TV, funcionarios etc means that Spain is still very much a rascist country, very much jobs for the boys. Yes, there'll be a few, a very few, but compared with UK, it's no contest. They don't mind having a few as canon fodder in The Forces though.

steviedeluxe

Probably a very fair assessment. I doubt the pueblo jobs pay much either, to be honest, but allow an early retirement.

JLFS

You know that is a bit daft to compare a post with a mistake (more a typo, due to haste really) on a forum that has been done on the hoof, with a carefully thought out, expensive, time consuming project, such as the website we are discussing.

I still consider my English level to be good, even though I often make mistakes.
So stop splitting hairs.