I am certainly not undervaluing the importance of technical skills.

Would you feel comfortable living in a building which was constructed by an engineer who spoke a fluent -asian language, moderate english and all his construction workers spoke different national languages and poor english. All the plans and paperwork was in english as the architect was canadian born.

The building would take forever to build and could be a disaster waiting to happen.

Not to say that it wouldnt happen anyway with an all english team. But woulnt you agree that the situation above is definately loaded in favor of a tower of babel.

Its a simple matter of being able to tell your subordinate without misunderstanding and building some teamwork.

The japanese all speak their language in their plant so they work like clockwork. I think that Canadian cos are looking for the same thing.

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Orginally posted by Nikhil

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Orginally posted by michelle288

I would have to say that organizations would rather have a person with communication skills as technical skills do get upgraded but if you cant communicate with employees properly, or if everything there is a misunderstanding it can be v costly.

I have nothing against people who dont know english. mine is not perfect. But it is esential that english is good otherwise it is a hudge barrier and that can be a sign that canada is not a place for you to come, unless you can take classes and improve that before comming.

I used to think its ok to have degrees and not have the required interpersonal skills or communication abilities but it seems to be the crux of the matter esp if you want a job in a professional field and want to rise as a manger.

Organizations will recruit someone not only because of their past experience but because of how they see that person in the future. If the person has comfortable level but makes a few mistakes they may not want to invest in that person.

These are just my opinions on the importance of communication...i personally would give the international person a chance.

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Orginally posted by Charlie


Crenshaw,
If you are in selection board of a technical job interview. Who would be your choice strictly from A or B:
A) A person with excellent knowledge of english language but ordinary technical knowledge
B) A person at comfortable level of english language and excellent technical knowledge with related experience from some othe country

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I beg to differ with you michelle288.

1. Would you live in a high rise building designed by a structural engineer who has excellent communication skills but average technical skills or one designed by an engineer with excellent technical skills but average communication skills. One of the reasons why IIT engineers are well known in US compared to engineers who are very fluent in english language thanks to their upbringing but who have done their engineering from some mediocre institutes in India.


2. Would you work in an oil refinery designed by someone with average technical skills? Improper equipment design can cause explosions and fires. I am sure that the american engineers who designed the methyl isocynate plant for Union Carbide in Bhopal had excellent communication skills.

And do I care about the communication and grammatical skills of the Japanese engineers who have designed the air bags in my car. No but I have lots of faith in their technical skills.

Nikhil

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smile ...

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Orginally posted by michelle288

On the note of communication and english.

Omni news


They have a man like azim premji talking in english about the profits of wipro and then have subtitles in english on what he's saying. (perhaps canadians wont understand his version of english).

Haha and would Azim Premji give a damn if the canadians understood him or not.

And then they have an anchor probably from here or perhaps reporting from india who is reporting on the event in a similar version of english with no subtitles.

I personally could understand Azim Premji better than the anchor.

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Orginally posted by michelle288

I am certainly not undervaluing the importance of technical skills.

Would you feel comfortable living in a building which was constructed by an engineer who spoke a fluent -asian language, moderate english and all his construction workers spoke different national languages and poor english. All the plans and paperwork was in english as the architect was canadian born.

The building would take forever to build and could be a disaster waiting to happen. "


The engineer has to be certified by PEO or any other certifying organisation in Canada so he should certainly be able to read the plans. I may be wrong about this but aren't there many Italians who work in the construction sector in Toronto and who converse in their language all the time. So an english speaking civil engineer is not going to be of much help.
And what if the english speaking engineer with average technical skills isn't able to read the plans properly and constructs supports of smaller dimensions thereby weakening the structure but completing the building on time. Would you feel safe residing in that building?

And aren't project management teams responsible that constructions take place on time. And most importantly they have Primivera for project scheduling.


Nikhil