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Appreciate the non English speakers, or hate them?


wordandrecord

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I find myself asking that question without a definitive answer…

One one side, I get extremely frustrated when a client can not speak English, and just getting his idea across takes a long time.

One the other side, fiverr truly enables us to work from people from all over the world. Isn’t that a huge bonus?

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I guess the word “hate” might come across as a bit strong, but I do know what you mean.
After all Fiverr is a place where the majority of users are English speakers, and it is a global online business, so being able to speak/understand English is quite important even though you don’t need to be native level in some cases.

There were 2 buyers in the past which I ended up telling them ( begging, to be exact) not to order from me since I was having such a hard time understanding them, yet they always had a very specific idea in mind. I had to send over 50 messages ( one time it went over 90!) back and forth just to finally get their ideas clearly. I started asking them many times to pleeeeeaaaase hire a person who can edit their messages ( or a translator), they kept saying yes, but never did. That angered me in the end and I stopped doing gigs for them. I guess I got upset not because of their English, but the fact that they kept saying they will ask someone to help, but never did and kept ordering from me pushed me over the edge. Well, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place if their English was a biiiiit better…and I’m aware that me saying this makes me sound like a b*tch. Huh.

On the other hand I’ve had the chance to meet many wonderful buyers from around the world…
and OK, I’m gonna admit, ALL of them spoke English pretty darn well, and I had no communication problems with them.

Not sure where I am going with this…
I can say this for sure, I do hate it when I see writing/translating/editing gigs done by people who can’t type a single sentence correctly!

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I guess the word “hate” might come across as a bit strong, but I do know what you mean.

After all Fiverr is a place where the majority of users are English speakers, and it is a global online business, so being able to speak/understand English is quite important even though you don’t need to be native level in some cases.

There were 2 buyers in the past which I ended up telling them ( begging, to be exact) not to order from me since I was having such a hard time understanding them, yet they always had a very specific idea in mind. I had to send over 50 messages ( one time it went over 90!) back and forth just to finally get their ideas clearly. I started asking them many times to pleeeeeaaaase hire a person who can edit their messages ( or a translator), they kept saying yes, but never did. That angered me in the end and I stopped doing gigs for them. I guess I got upset not because of their English, but the fact that they kept saying they will ask someone to help, but never did and kept ordering from me pushed me over the edge. Well, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place if their English was a biiiiit better…and I’m aware that me saying this makes me sound like a b*tch. Huh.

On the other hand I’ve had the chance to meet many wonderful buyers from around the world…

and OK, I’m gonna admit, ALL of them spoke English pretty darn well, and I had no communication problems with them.

Not sure where I am going with this…

I can say this for sure, I do hate it when I see writing/translating/editing gigs done by people who can’t type a single sentence correctly!

Definitely with you on this one…

The writing gig scammers… Its just ridiculous.

If someone buys these gigs anyways, it is truly their fault for not reading and noticing the obvious mistakes.

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Hate is a strong word. Some truly do work hard, and some are just flat out scammers thinking they can fool us Americans.

I remember buying an astrology birth chart gig here on Fiverr from some indian guy - knew it was a risk but I thought I’d give it a shot.
The guy ended up charging me $15 for a birth chart you could of gotten for FREE on a website that I literally go on every day. Such bs. I gave proof to Fiverr and after a long process, I literally told the guy he’s lame and finally got my money back.

I have a love/hate relationship with foreign sellers here.

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Hate is a strong word. Some truly do work hard, and some are just flat out scammers thinking they can fool us Americans.

I remember buying an astrology birth chart gig here on Fiverr from some indian guy - knew it was a risk but I thought I’d give it a shot.

The guy ended up charging me $15 for a birth chart you could of gotten for FREE on a website that I literally go on every day. Such bs. I gave proof to Fiverr and after a long process, I literally told the guy he’s lame and finally got my money back.

I have a love/hate relationship with foreign sellers here.

Hate is a strong word.

I have a love/hate relationship with foreign sellers here.

Ha!

Anyway yes hate is actually a strong word.

Dealing with buyers who don’t speak proper English is definitely a red flag for me, because if I can’t see what they want after 2-3 messages I certainly won’t be able to understand them mid-order so I send them on their merry way.

But I don’t think non-existent basic English skills = scammers though.

That’s straight up profiling. 🙂

I did a random Google search last night, don’t remember what I was looking for and I somehow ended up on a forum filled with scammers giving each other advice on how to make a quick buck on Fiverr.

There were pressing issues like: “Fiverr found out about my VPN and now my location is not the united states anymore!” or “buyer is asking me for proof, and refuses to submit a review! What can I do!?!?”

I’m not going to go into detail about which region those scammers were from, but their English skills were pretty darn good! 😛

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Hate is a strong word.

I have a love/hate relationship with foreign sellers here.

Ha!

Anyway yes hate is actually a strong word.

Dealing with buyers who don’t speak proper English is definitely a red flag for me, because if I can’t see what they want after 2-3 messages I certainly won’t be able to understand them mid-order so I send them on their merry way.

But I don’t think non-existent basic English skills = scammers though.

That’s straight up profiling. 🙂

I did a random Google search last night, don’t remember what I was looking for and I somehow ended up on a forum filled with scammers giving each other advice on how to make a quick buck on Fiverr.

There were pressing issues like: “Fiverr found out about my VPN and now my location is not the united states anymore!” or “buyer is asking me for proof, and refuses to submit a review! What can I do!?!?”

I’m not going to go into detail about which region those scammers were from, but their English skills were pretty darn good! 😛

There were pressing issues like: “Fiverr found out about my VPN and now my location is not the united states anymore!” or “buyer is asking me for proof, and refuses to submit a review! What can I do!?!?”

Unbelievable lol.

Yes I rarely try to do any services with foreign sellers - language barrier is another important factor.

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Hate is a strong word.

I have a love/hate relationship with foreign sellers here.

Ha!

Anyway yes hate is actually a strong word.

Dealing with buyers who don’t speak proper English is definitely a red flag for me, because if I can’t see what they want after 2-3 messages I certainly won’t be able to understand them mid-order so I send them on their merry way.

But I don’t think non-existent basic English skills = scammers though.

That’s straight up profiling. 🙂

I did a random Google search last night, don’t remember what I was looking for and I somehow ended up on a forum filled with scammers giving each other advice on how to make a quick buck on Fiverr.

There were pressing issues like: “Fiverr found out about my VPN and now my location is not the united states anymore!” or “buyer is asking me for proof, and refuses to submit a review! What can I do!?!?”

I’m not going to go into detail about which region those scammers were from, but their English skills were pretty darn good! 😛

There are forums like that? The only Fiverr forum I know is this, the official Fiverr forum. Surprised.

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I understand you completely, it’s hard to work with those people.
but, in my case, I’m giving my best to deliver what they want. I do everything what I understand from it. after they see it, I’ll know which part was right to do which not, and yes, I’m expecting a multiple revisions later until I do it right.
so that would be a looooooot of work 😃

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Hate is a very strong word. However, there are some non-English speaking buyers who I do actually hate.

This is because on several different occasions I’ve had non-English resellers of my service make me work like a dog because they can’t figure out their end clients brief. I submit an article, about cheese rolls which they asked me to write, then I get told they need one about car tyres.

Also, I have only ever had chargebacks, threats, abusive spam, blackmail, and genuine hate pointed in my direction from non-English speaking buyers. In fact, Fiverr has made me so un-PC that I have a secret list of nationalities who I will do everything I can to avoid working with.

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@frank_d on one of those forums, I found–to my surprise–that there were people hating on me.

lol.thumb.png.60dbe5fc9d09a0b60a9229d48c8b6c1f.png

I am unsure whether to be flattered or scared by my new-found internet fame and sex change.

I don’t really care whether someone speaks good or bad English. Obviously, it’s preferable that they communicate whatever they want, unless they decide that I write like a housewife while mangling God’s own language.

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@frank_d on one of those forums, I found–to my surprise–that there were people hating on me.

I am unsure whether to be flattered or scared by my new-found internet fame and sex change.

I don’t really care whether someone speaks good or bad English. Obviously, it’s preferable that they communicate whatever they want, unless they decide that I write like a housewife while mangling God’s own language.

Does that mean you have grown a beard and talk like Captain Haddock?

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As translation is what I sell, I tend to work with a lot of non English speakers and generally don’t have an issue with them although there are frustrating times when they try to correct my English. When it comes to getting details and instructions, I often find English speakers are awful as they don’t give you any info or else write a huge list of instructions that contradicts itself or just doesn’t actually relate to the work that is to be done.
As for scammers, this is definitely not limited to non English speakers, my bigger problem buyers have all been English speakers from Western nations who knew exactly what they were doing. Proper scammers.

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I am still working on the beard. As a man, you should know that beards don’t just grow overnight, unless you’re an incredibly manly man.

beards don’t just grow overnight

They do.

Shaved in the morning.

Morning : Baby’s bum.

Evening : Sandpaper.

Next day : Santa Claus.

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beards don’t just grow overnight

They do.

Shaved in the morning.

Morning : Baby’s bum.

Evening : Sandpaper.

Next day : Santa Claus.

Do you also fight tigers barehanded while smoking Marlboro cigarettes and drinking whiskey? Do you have a deep, gravelly voice that commands respect wherever you go? Because that would all go with the superpowered beard.

@eoinfinnegan, it would be nice if buyers had some kind of education into creating a brief (which I appreciate can be an art in itself). I don’t need a novella for a $10 gig, nor is one word like e.g. “dogs” on an article gig. Perhaps Fiverr could make some kind of questionnaire thing to help buyers be more concise. They do have that industry thing added, so this should be an easy job for them as they know what they are doing.

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@frank_d on one of those forums, I found–to my surprise–that there were people hating on me.

I am unsure whether to be flattered or scared by my new-found internet fame and sex change.

I don’t really care whether someone speaks good or bad English. Obviously, it’s preferable that they communicate whatever they want, unless they decide that I write like a housewife while mangling God’s own language.

I think it’s flattering. Trolls or no trolls, you are worshipped!

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