On Monday morning, Cayetano Portugués, the spokesperson for Compromís por Orihuela, submitted a proposal to the town hall, which is aimed at all of the groups who form part of the local government. The proposal requires foreign language training for town hall workers. This is taking into consideration that ´´In Orihuela a large number of our community speak German, French, Russian, and mainly, English´´
According to Compromís, ´´There is a social and political consensus in our country for the improvement of foreign language teaching and the Town Hall of Orihuela should take into account the economic necessities of the area´´.
Furthermore, Portugués made the point that ´´By incentivising town hall workers to have a better knowledge of foreign languages we will improve our services for our neighbours who reside on the coast. It will also help to increase cultural tourism in the town of Orihuela, creating additional much needed economic development.´´
For this to happen, Compromís por Orihuela have suggested a series of measures which are outlined in the proposal. One of these is the request for economic and staffing support from bodies such as the Generalitat, the Consellerias or Diputación de Alicante. Others include the commitment of the Orihuela Town Hall to organise language courses and facilitate the attendance of these council workers, in addition to communicating this with the parliamentary groups, the Cortes Valencianas and the Conselleria.
The ecosocialist spokesperson has said that ´´There are town hall workers who are looking to improve their knowledge of foreign languages but they struggle to find time in their busy work schedules. We need to help them to achieve their language learning objectives, which will in turn enable them to provide a better service for all of the citizens of the area´´.
Portugués has concluded by highlighting the importance that language learning has in today’s world, stating that ´´We live in a global world and Orihuela is a destination for many retired Europeans and English language speakers who have become our colleagues and our neighbours´´.
