# English language skills for Puerto Rico college grad

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-language-skills-for-puerto-rico-college-grad/844671>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 10, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-language-skills-for-puerto-rico-college-grad/844671 "2019-12-10T21:21:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-language-skills-for-puerto-rico-college-grad/844671/1 "2019-12-10T21:21:14Z")

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Wondering if anyone had any experience as to the English language skills that could be expected of someone who graduated from college and subsequently worked in a bank in PR. For example, are PR schools bilingual above some grade level?

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**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-language-skills-for-puerto-rico-college-grad/844671/2 "2019-12-11T13:28:35Z")

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Shoulda known an aswer was available [online](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Puerto_Rico).

Sounds as tho high school would have had at lease English as foreign language classes, but the majority of business is done in Spanish. So I would imagine most college educated would have SOME English skills, but could easily not be proficient.

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-language-skills-for-puerto-rico-college-grad/844671/3 "2019-12-11T20:51:52Z")

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The English skills of Puerto Ricans vary widely. I’ve deposed about a hundred Puerto Ricans and I have a couple of dozen Puerto Rican friends. Some have virtually no English skills at all; most are fluent English speakers. There seems to be a significant age divide (with younger people generally having much better English skills); I suspect that has a lot to do with the Internet.

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-language-skills-for-puerto-rico-college-grad/844671/4 "2019-12-11T21:04:58Z")

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> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> Shoulda known an aswer was available [online](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Puerto_Rico).
> 
> Sounds as tho high school would have had at lease English as foreign language classes, but the majority of business is done in Spanish. So I would imagine most college educated would have SOME English skills, but could easily not be proficient.

As mentioned above, it really depends. What did the person study in college? What kind of bank was it? In general, the more educated, the more likely the person is going to be proficient in English. There could also be a wide variance between oral and written skills.

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-language-skills-for-puerto-rico-college-grad/844671/5 "2019-12-11T22:32:54Z")

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A friend of mine taught math for several years at UPR–in English. So you have to assume that all the students could handle that.