Mexico: is the language barrier an obstacle to international recruitment?

As we all know, questions and discussions about the French language in Quebec are very sensitive, especially when it comes to immigration. For this reason, some employers are reluctant to hire foreign workers, particularly Mexicans. The language barrier is said to be too great an obstacle. But is it really?

It's important to understand that learning a language varies according to a number of criteria. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on two: the language studied and the learning conditions. Firstly, although it presents certain difficulties, we can say that French is 'easy' for Mexicans to learn. In fact, French and Spanish both come from the Romance language family. They therefore share many similarities in terms of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. For example, the word "family" is called "familia" in Spanish. So learning French will be much quicker and easier.

Finally, Mexicans, like many immigrants to Quebec, generally learn French in a context of total immersion. For reference purposes, it is said that a person will learn the basics of a so-called "easy" language in six months at a rate of 20 hours of study a week. If a Mexican worker spends 40 hours a week in total immersion at work, the learning time would be cut in half! They would then be able to maintain a basic conversation in French about three months after their arrival. Of course, learning abilities vary from one individual to another, but these figures should be very encouraging for Quebec employers.

To sum up, the language barrier does not seem to present a real obstacle to international recruitment, at least in the case of Mexicans. The 'ease' of the language and the learning environment mean that they can quickly learn the basics of French, in about three months. Employers simply have to give the runaround and allow their workers to learn the language. In practical terms, the keys to success are trust and time.

Sources

https://talkpal.ai/fr/apprendre-le-francais-pour-les-hispanophones/#:~:text=Les%20avantages%20d'learn%20the%20family%20of%20roman%20languages

https://insights.gostudent.org/fr/combien-de-temps-apprendre-langue-etrangere