your country ? Thread poster: Marta Fernandez-Suarez (X)
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Marta Fernandez-Suarez (X) 
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:29
English to Spanish
Hello
This, I'm afraid, is a very basic question related to a query I made a few days ago. I have looked at the FAQ's but I'm not 100% clear yet about this.
When one registers, the is a field that says "your country", just after there is the address section. Now, this field seems to be the only way an outsourcer could filter to search for Spanish natives that are from a particular country. Because of this, I would like to write Spain there, as that is my country.
... See more Hello
This, I'm afraid, is a very basic question related to a query I made a few days ago. I have looked at the FAQ's but I'm not 100% clear yet about this.
When one registers, the is a field that says "your country", just after there is the address section. Now, this field seems to be the only way an outsourcer could filter to search for Spanish natives that are from a particular country. Because of this, I would like to write Spain there, as that is my country.
However, because there is the address field just after, this section seems to be for "your country of residence". If that is the case and we have to put our country of residence, I am going to get basically no jobs through Proz.com as my country of residence at the moment is the UK. Is Proz.com, as far as this issue is concerned, outcasting translators who are not currently living in the country they grew up in?
Would you like to see two fields here, "country of residence" and "native country"?
Please, write your opinion! Thank you very much in advance.
Kind regards
Marta ▲ Collapse
| | | | awilliams
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:29
Italian to English
+ ...
| "your country"? | Jun 14, 2006 |
Marta Fernandez-Suarez wrote:
If that is the case and we have to put our country of residence, I am going to get basically no jobs through Proz.com as my country of residence at the moment is the UK. Is Proz.com, as far as this issue is concerned, outcasting translators who are not currently living in the country they grew up in?
Hi Marta,
I'm not sure why you are so certain that you are going to get "basically no jobs" through the site? I think any outsourcer worth their salt knows that you can have a not-so-good translator living in their "native" country and a brilliant translator living in a country that is not their "native" country, and vice versa. It's all down to the individual translator. There are hundreds of very successful translators on the site who do not live in their "native" country. Admittedly some jobs may require you to be in a particular country - you may have to deliver a file personally etc. - but apart from that I don't see your country of residence as being a problem. Some outsourcers may even view it as a bonus - you are completely immersed in your source language.
So...no, I don't think it would be a good idea to have "country of residence" and "native country". It would open a very large can of worms: "I lived in 20 countries between the ages of 0-10 and I don't know which one to list" etc. In any case, you can say in your profile that you lived in Spain for x years and a decent outsourcer will take a look at that. And if an outsourcer wants to search for Spanish natives in Spain, well, that's up to them! The next time they may well be looking for a Spanish native in the UK.
Sorry that doesn't help much!
Enjoy the rest of your week,
Amy
[Edited at 2006-06-14 13:03]
| | | | E.LA
Spanish to German
+ ...
| country + mother tongue | Jun 14, 2006 |
Hi!
I really don't understand your problem. If you request something from the moderator, you should write an email.
If you consider that there should be two country-sections, I do not understand why.
In reality it is not important where you are born, but your mother tongue. And there is a section to put in, which language is your native language.
The country where you live makes sense: If you do not live in Spain, your language will change a little bi... See more Hi!
I really don't understand your problem. If you request something from the moderator, you should write an email.
If you consider that there should be two country-sections, I do not understand why.
In reality it is not important where you are born, but your mother tongue. And there is a section to put in, which language is your native language.
The country where you live makes sense: If you do not live in Spain, your language will change a little bit, as you have not the actual influence, and some people care of this - the diary contact to the language.
I am sure where you live there are enough agencies who are searching a native spanish speaker and prefer somebody of their country.
The other option is that you do not write the country at all. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Marta Fernandez-Suarez (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:29
English to Spanish
TOPIC STARTER | maybe it is clearer explained this way | Jun 14, 2006 |
French from Belgium is not the same as French from France, Portuguese from Portugal is not the same as Portuguese from Brazil, Spanish from Uruguay is not the same as Spanish from Spain. Outsourcers who need documents translated into one of these 3 languages -though there are other languages to which the same issue applies- need to specify which kind of French, Portuguese or Spanish they wish a doc. to be translated into.
This issue is particularly relevant in Spanish, simply becau... See more French from Belgium is not the same as French from France, Portuguese from Portugal is not the same as Portuguese from Brazil, Spanish from Uruguay is not the same as Spanish from Spain. Outsourcers who need documents translated into one of these 3 languages -though there are other languages to which the same issue applies- need to specify which kind of French, Portuguese or Spanish they wish a doc. to be translated into.
This issue is particularly relevant in Spanish, simply because there are so many of us... Now, let's say I'm an outsourcer and I wish to use the Directory to find a translator or several translators whose native language is Spanish from Mexico; it seems the only way I can do this is by using the “country of residence field”, I’ll therefore get a list of translators who speak Spanish and whose "country of residence" is Mexico
* what about all those brilliant Mexican translators who are living in a different country? They just will not be listed.
The same happens when I see translations jobs posted in Proz.com. Some of them are restricted not to translators who translate into Spanish from Spain, but to translators who translate into Spanish and LIVE in Spain.
The Mexicans, Spanish, Brazilians, etc. who live abroad will have to go with this or lie and say they live in the country of the language they can translate into. In my case, I have never lied in a CV or in a job application, and I won't start now, this is why I say I may not get a job through Proz.com. I still think Proz is a great tool for marketing and for research, though.
I agree with you completely, Amy, in the fact that living abroad can be a huge advantage when it comes to understanding the language you are translating from. Thanks for remarking this!
Good luck to those who are in the same situation! Don’t despair!
Marta ▲ Collapse
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Thomas Pfann
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:29
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
| Problem is the language selection, not the country field | Jun 14, 2006 |
I see your point, Marta. However, I think not the country field should be changed (or a second one added), but the language selection field would need some alterations. At the moment you can only select 'Spanish' as source or target language - it would make a lot of sense to expand the choices here and add more options such as 'Spanish (Spain)', 'Spanish (Mexico)' etc.
Do you think that would solve your problem?
| | | | Marta Fernandez-Suarez (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:29
English to Spanish
TOPIC STARTER | definitively | Jun 14, 2006 |
Hi Thomas
Yes, that will be so useful/necessary for many of us... I hope Proz changes this one day (asap!!!)
Kind regards
Marta
| | | | Rosa Maria Duenas Rios (X)
Local time: 10:29
| A suggestion to Marta | Jun 14, 2006 |
Marta Fernandez-Suarez wrote:
Would you like to see two fields here, "country of residence" and "native country"?
Please, write your opinion! Thank you very much in advance.
Kind regards
Marta
I understand where you are coming from. I was born in Mexico, I am a legal resident of the US, and I move around every two or three years.
The country shown in my profile is the US. However, in the body of the profile I explained that I was born and raised in Mexico City (my native tongue is Spanish), but that I have lived in other parts of the world. This seems to have solved the problem, at least for me. Why don't you try something similar?
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