On 16 April 2011 01:48, Dan Rosenthal swatjester@gmail.com wrote:
It might be easier if you look at it as a numerical scale where "native speaker" is a quality level at or near the top, and someone who speaks none of or only a handful of words in the language is at the bottom. From Jay's clarification:
"Perhaps a more clear way to write this sentence would have simply been to state that we're looking for a candidate who can speak English as well as another language at the 'native speaker' level - that is, someone who is bilingual. "
The way I read this is that they want you to have two languages at the "native speaker" quality level. Or in other words, if an average native English speaker can speak at a 4 out of 5 point scale (hypothetically assume that a full 5 would be reserved for someone like a university English professor or something), then they're asking that you speak both English and one other language at at least 4 out of 5 points.
In fact we have something very similar on the projects, in the commonly used "Babel" system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Babel
So it appears the requirements for this position are en-5 (professional level of English) and xx-4 or greater (near-native level of another language).
However I did interpret the current wording "as a native speaker" in the same way as Sarah at first, until it was clarified on this list. Perhaps it should be changed on the job openings page.
Pete / the wub