On 16 April 2011 01:48, Dan Rosenthal <swatjester(a)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