You would think in a country like Panama where there are so many English speaking people & English is taught in private & public schools (I just found that out the other day), there would be more people who speak close to fluent English, but there isn’t.
It wasn’t just the fact that they can’t write proper English or understand me on the phone, they also can’t follow simple instructions.
I asked for 3 simple things:
- Resume
- Their translating experience
- The hours they can work
99% of them send their resume & nothing else.
I got very frustrated & angry at first & of course this caused a lot of problems, so finally I had to just ignore them & file them in the “stupid” folder.
I wasn’t looking for a professionally licensed translator because I can’t afford those prices, but even so, I never got professionals contacting me anyway.
My point is, even with a very very short hiring ad, 90% of them can’t read English or follow simple instructions. Then when I get on the phone with them to test their comprehension of my English, it’s usually very poor.
I even had one who told me she was teaching English in a school & I begged her to stop because she couldn’t even write proper English.
I also hired two who I thought did well, but then I found out both made a lot of mistakes when finding out information for me. I eventually talked to one owner of the company who gave me the proper information after TWO translators over the course of 2 months gave me such misinformation, it cost me.
One was a nice girl, but she finally made me realize how crucial this position is over the simplest of things like calling cell phone companies, mattress companies, etc.
They will all tell you they can speak English, but they can’t. In all fairness to Panama, it’s the same way in the Philippines & other countries. They are either too stupid to realize what they don’t know, or they just lie.