For my own personal interiest, I want to know if I need Spanish to work for the railroad. My dad argues with me that over half of all RR employees are migrant workers who come up to the US in the summer to work, and you basicly have to know Spanish to work. I want to work in MN, ND, MT, ID, WA, ect, in the Northern US. My dad says that it is the same way up there too.
Is this true? Should I persue taking Spanish classes in school?
Do you have to start from the bottom (track workers) to work for the railroad?
I would like to know from the people that work for the railroad, and have experience.
Unrelated, somewhat to your question, but I happen to be a dad too. My oldest son is taking Spanish in high school. He took a year of German first, but figured out that in the future, knowing some Spanish would probably be more usefull. Most high schools and colleges want you to have some foreign language study. You might as well learn one that will be somewhat usefull down the road.
I have not ever worked at a real rr, but I have asked a worker at the Durango & Silverton rr if he had to know different languages to work the rr. He said no, but it’s good to know how to speak them. My advice to you is to take the spanish classes.
No foreign language is a requirement, although it wouldn’t hurt to know one.
Timetables, safety rules, GCOR and Norac rule books are in English.
Don’t know of any railroad that hires “migrant” T&E employees, although they may hire sub contractors for construction projects, and those folks might have migrant workers on their payroll.
If half of us come up from South America to work summers, then that means half of us leave during the winter?
You can start as a brakeman/conductor trainee…you do not have to start in MOW service.
You do, on almost every road, have to qualify as a conductor before you can take engineers training, and on most roads, (not all, but most) if you fail the engineers training, you are released from service, fired out right.
Migrant railroad workers? Really? Not anywhere I’m familiar with. Maybe in the Track Department - which frequently uses outside subcontractors. But it takes nearly 6 months to hire and train a conductor.
For every Operations position I have held or interviewed for, speaking clear and understandable English is a requirement.
You don’t have to start in the track department. You can start as a conductor, but you have to be a conductor before you can be an engineer. Also if you have a college degree, you could qualify to hire into one of the management trainee programs. Although possible, it’s rare for employees to transfer between departments - Track, Train & Engine, Mechanical, and Signals & Communications. Usually, you stay in the department you hire with.
The reason I was asking is because I have 2 years of Spanish (2 semesters of Middle School Spanish, and Spanish 1) under my belt, and I find it hard to learn a new language. I get mostly D’s and C’s (with the semester tests, I usually get a 63%) which brings my B’s and A’s down to B’s and C’s, and I barely make Honor Roll, when I could get High Honor Roll without Spanish.
I know how to speak basic Spanish that could be useful if there is indeed someone that only speak Spanish.
I guess it would be useful to speak Spanish for personal purposes, too.
My dad told me that railroads hire people that only speak Spanish, and I could never get a management position (track gang forman, or something by that means) if I didn’t speak Spanish. Is this just a bunch of bull, or is it true? It sounds like you have to speak Spanish to work for the railroad.
If I am a liscenced engineer and or conductor who works on a tourist railroad, would it take a long time to get a job like that in the railroad? Would taking a class, like the National Accademy of Railroad Science’s classes give be a better chance of getting a job?
Oh man! Here comes the dad in me again. Son-just buckle down and study. You’ll do better in life if you try hard to learn something. Switching to easier classes just to bring up your G.P.A. is the easy way to accomplish nothing. Who is going to be impressed with straight A’s in underwater basketweaving anyway? Learning spanish may help you later in life. Learning to deal with a difficult situation will help you your entire life.
If you want to learn the language, find someome who has an excelent command of the Spanish language. Conversing in a new language helps the mind to ‘think’ in that new language. Comprende! O tengo que escribir o explica lo en Espanol.
Maybe the Art department can make a class for underwater basket weaving? (!)
I only planned on taking 2 High School years of Spanish anyways, so it would help me out in college, and in my future railroad career. One more year to go!
Complete bull. Like I said in the track department MAYBE. But anyone in Operations MUST speak clear and understandable English. All the Operations Management positions, I have held or interviewed for require you to speak clear and understandable English.
Would it hurt to speak Spanish? No. Do you HAVE to, in Operations? No. Do you have to, in the Track Department? Maybe.
Probably not, it might help with a tourist or regional, but not with a Class I. The Class I will send you to the school of their choosing. If in fact you are licenced as an Engineer, you can apply as a professional transfer. However, some current agreements do not allow for the direct hiring of Engineers, when there are unpromoted conductors at that location. So, you’d have to start over as a conductor.
If you want to work for a tourist railroad, the best thing to do is go down to the depot and volunteer. If you turn out to be a good volunteer, they will quide you through the certification process.
I do not know if spanish will be useful for an american who intends to work on an american railroad, but if you are young I encourage you to learn chinese dialects like Mandarim, because China will be the next superpower soon. Here in Brazil if you speak and write chinese you can get good employments in huge companies like CVRD, because almost all big companies today have business with China. And I think it is not different in USA. Mandarim is not difficult to spanish people, but I do not know for germanic ones. But to learn a new language is a good challenger for everyone. Try it, I´m sure you will like it .[:)]
I felt the same way about Spanish. It seemed silly and like I was pretending when I had to speak Spanish. I even had a girlfriend for a while who spoke Spanish (and French, and something else) and, while I could understand her, I always answered in English because Spanish felt pretend. Never could take it seriously. Just squeeked by in college (was sweating my last Spanish test for graduation!!). I can watch and understand Spanish on TV, but I could never answer in a logical way anyone. Never been a problem.
When I hired out, Union Pacific was looking for 16 people. We had roughly 300 people trying to hire on. Out of those 300 more than half were of Spanish decent. The first test they gave us was the comprehenion test. It was a written test (in English) of about 50 questions. After that, they graded the test and gave us our results. More than half the people in the room failed that test. Crack it up to “No Habla”.
We routely have contractors that get on the radio speaking Spanish, they are called to the carpet by either the crews, dispatchers, or management. If everyone can’t understand what you’re saying, don’t say it in Spanish!
About 1990 Soo Line started a program called Pro Back. It was aimed at reducing back injuries and making ergonomic changes in everyday tasks that resulted in back injuries.
Part of the program was the creation of a monthly newsletter letting the employees know what ideas for change had been implemented, ideas/changes in the works, and asking for more ideas. It was found that the many of the engineering dept folks could not read the news letter as it was printed in English. This meant those same employees could not read the safety rules book, GCOR,their union contract, etc,etc.
The Pro Back team at Bensenville then came up with the idea to print the news letter in Spansih as well. The result was that many of the Spanish speaking employees were seen with both copies of the news letter and were using it to learn to read English. It was a win-win for Soo and employees.
It has to be American English everywhere for the entire system to work.
It is one thing shouting bad spanish on the produce dock down at the border with Mexico and get laughed at because I am a dumb Yankee what cannot speak spanish properly. It is quite enough to think of scenarios between an engineer and fireman debating the upcoming signal in two languages. YEESH.
Pilots are required to use English for ATC Control and Unicom there should also be a hard requirement for English in Railroads. I hardly think Migrant workers are in a position to work FOR the railroad. Usually it’s the Migrants who risk getting butchered or mashed trying to hop a train north.
Oddly I felt quite at home up there in Canada Ontario and surrounding areas. Having a small french book and learning a little of the signs and making the necessary conversions as needed to safely drive a big truck up there was not a problem. There is always a dumbkopt who thinks 100 means 100 Miles an Hour up there.