Posted by Ernesto
I would like to file a complaint about Rosetta Stone's recruitment process for tutors, appealing to the company's principles of honesty, transparency and costumer care.
I applied for the position of Latin American Spanish Online Language tutor last March 28th, 2020. On April 3rd, I received the invitation for a digital interview with an estimated duration of 4 minutes. After the completion during the same day, I received another email with the specifications about the job position and I quote:
"Thank you for your interest in Rosetta Stone! We are excited to continue our review process for Latin American Spanish Online Language Tutor. Prior to doing so, I wanted to confirm this position requires you to be a native Latin American Spanish speaker. This is a part-time hourly role that will compensate at $15.00 hourly (We also compensate for your first three weeks of training at $12.00 hourly). Please note that our learner base is comprised primarily of adults.
You will be receiving a separate invite to your email address within the next hour that will include instructions to submit your voice audition to confirm your native fluency. This must be completed in 24 hours to be considered. Expected time to complete: 10 minutes"
I am Cuban, graduated from a pedagogical university (after five years of intense studies) in the field of teaching foreign languages, mainly English. I have over four years of work experience, especially working with university students; reason why, I applied for the position of Latin American Online Language Tutor.
After submitting these videos, I received the notification that I was not selected. Curious for the reason why I was not chosen, I requested further details about it and I received the following answer and I quote:
"To be candid, our tutor found errors in your pronunciation that could cause an issue with our learners. We sincerely thank you for your interest and hope to connect in the future!"
I believe this email together with all I have been through during this recruitment process have been not only unprofessional, but also disrespectful and discriminatory for the following reasons:
1. Since Rosetta Stone has stated that I had errors in my pronunciation, it is totally unprofessional to make that statement without providing a complete feedback about it.
2. The company showed lack of transparency by not specifying the accent and/or dialect they were interesting in within the spectrum of Latin American Spanish, which results on them discriminating certain dialects against others.
3. Cutting down the line of communication by Milly Rivas ([email protected]) by not answering my last email sent last 7th, April, where I kindly commented on some specificities about the way Cubans speak Spanish and also asked for a second chance if possible, represents a complete display of disrespect and lack of customer care.
As a foreign language teacher and Cuban Spanish speaker, I am aware of the differences between our way of speaking Spanish and the rest of Spanish speaking countries. We have certain patterns in our pronunciation that are misjudged and sometimes qualified as mistakes by other Spanish speakers like: the omission of final sounds like: S or the omission / aspiration of the sound R when it is in the middle of a word; as well as changing the consonant R for L when occurs in the middle of a word or too strong pronunciation of the sound R. Moreover, we do not make any distinction between V and B or S, C and Z, and we also change the final sound M for N, etc.
However, as it is known, languages are in constant development and what it is considered a mistake today, turns out to be of common use tomorrow and then it stays and becomes part of a language. In the same way, what it is considered mispronounced in a city, region or country, could be totally accepted in another place.
But the key point in this situation is that if I am applying for a job position, where the main requirement is to be a native Latin American Spanish speaker and I am Cuban, which means I speak in a particular way, was it wrong to speak like that? Was my pronunciation mistaken or did Rosetta Stone fail to take into account the particularities of the Spanish spoken in Cuba?
I believed that the essence of the job position was to be a native Latin American speaker, in my case a Cuban Spanish speaker. Just think for a moment about all the accents and dialects that there are in The United States and Great Britain and imagine you have an English teacher from each region. Then, ask them to pronounce the word "water". Who will pronounce it correctly? And which pronunciation should be taught to the students as legit?
I tried to explain these arguments to Rosetta Stone through an email I sent last 7th, April, mainly trying to understand their evaluation process and if it was possible to have a second chance to prove that I can be an asset to the company rather than a liability, but they never answered me back.
Hopefully, I will have some feedback from you.
Thank you very much in advance for your assistance and I'll be looking forward to your response.
Best regards,
Ernesto Barnes
[email protected]
P.S I am adding my last email sent to Rosetta Stone
Hi Milly,
Thanks for getting back to me.
And... well, I feel speechless after your feedback.
However, I believe I should share my humble opinion with you.
I consider that there is no such thing as errors in pronunciation in a native speaker of any language rather than common bad behaviors that become part of a language in a particular region or country.
I don't know what exactly the errors are, but I hope that during the evaluation it was taken into account that in Cuba there are certain patterns in our way of speaking Spanish that can be considered as mistakes for other speakers of the same language.
And here I am talking about the omission of final sounds like: S, or omission or aspiration of the sound R when it is in the middle of a word; as well as changing the consonant R for L when occurs in the middle of a word or too strong pronunciation of the sound R. Moreover, we do not make any distinction between V and B or S, C and Z, etc.
So, as you can see, it is very easy to be misjudged when one is a common Cuban Spanish speaker. However, at the time of teaching foreigners, we always choose to teach what it is standard among all the Spanish speaking countries and make sure to review what has to be taught beforehand, so we can avoid this confusions in the language for the students.
Our way of speaking Spanish is not wrong, it is authentic and part of our culture and idiosyncrasy.
As a language teacher I am aware of these differences and because of my university studies and my teaching experience for over 4 years teaching foreign languages, I can assure you that I am able to teach Spanish according to Rosetta Stone's standards.
I believe that with your willingness to give me an opportunity to work for you and my teaching experience, knowledge about my mother tongue and hard work, I will be an asset to your company instead of a liability.
Being said this, if you have ever had the bliss of a second chance in your life, I would like to kindly ask you to reconsider your decision.
Thank you very much for your feedback.
Looking forward to your final response.
