Jump to content

Tips for better communication in English [CLOSED]

mae_creativity

By mae_creativity
in Tips from Sellers

Recommended Posts

mae_creativity Collaborator

mae_creativity

Posted
Posted

Tips for non- native English speakers…
Hiya 🙂
[i speak and teach several languages, so here are some tips for you about writing in English on Fiverr.]

DIFFERENT LANGUAGES - DIFFERENT CULTURES:
For example - in Spain, when you walk into a store, the clerk says: ‘Que quieres?’ This is the normal thing to say and expect to hear. But in English, ‘What do you want?’ sounds very rude. If a seller in England asked me that, I wouldn’t answer, and just leave the store. In Spain, I would tell them what I want to buy, then buy it.

A few random, common things we write to clients on Fiverr - in polite English:

  • How can I help you?
  • Thanks for contacting me. I would love to hear more details.
  • I’m not sure what you mean, could you please explain that in a different way?
  • Thank you for your order. I’ll start right away.
  • Thanks again for ordering. If you’d like to leave a review I would really appreciate it.
  • I’d like to let you know that English is not my native language, so you will see errors in my writing (grammar and spelling). But be assured, I do understand written/spoken English.
  • Here’s your order. Please let me know if you have any questions.
  • I will have a look at what you sent me, and write you back within an hour.
  • I will be offline for the next two hours.
  • It was a pleasure working with you.
  • I need to see an example before I can commit to the project. Please send me a sample.

Some people think that using emojis [ 🙂 :confused: :o ] is not professional. But in my opinion, if communicating through writing (in any language) is not easy for you, a little smiley face changes the mood of the message and can help a lot. If the actual work that you do is professional, I don’t see a problem with a little smiley face. And if you click on the smiley face under the message text box, you will find at least 100 pictures of any object/animal/person you can think of.

In conclusion, buyers have so many sellers to choose from here. Of course learning or perfecting your English is great for many reasons. But you don’t have to wait till you know perfect English to start selling your gigs.

For now, make a list of everything you can think of, that you will be writing to clients (questions, answers, greetings, information). Also, all the words and sentences that are related to your profession. Then translate everything to English. Next, ask a native English speaker, or English teacher to make sure your translations are correct (grammar, punctuation and spelling), and sound polite in English. [Google Translate is a bad idea for this!] Keep those papers or files ready to use when talking with clients.

And definitely make sure everything in your profile, gig description, gig extras, buyer requirements - have zero mistakes. Zero!!!

Best of luck and I hope you enjoy the process.
Hugs, May. 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gina_riley2 Veteran

gina_riley2

Posted
Posted

Thank you for sharing. It wiĺl be very useful to many people.

I’ve had a hard time understanding some of my sellers. I had one seller that I thought was being rude and threatening me - that God awful language barrier. He was just trying to tell me he needed more time. He delivered the most amazing work, so it all worked out at the end. It was bit frustrating.

Half my sellers are great artists from around the world. A little language barrier won’t stop me from hiring them. Only time I demand perfection in written words are from my editors, proofreaders, or content editors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...