How can I Declare my Native language if I made a mistake? Thread poster: Greta Vera
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Greta Vera 
Mexico
Local time: 09:28
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
Hello!
I have made a mistake in declaring my native language and I declared 2. My native language is Spanish and I want to declare it instead of English and Spanish (which I thought I had to put the languages that I work with).
I hope you guys can help me!!!!
Greta Vera
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sarahl (X)
Local time: 08:28
English to French
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| I would like to fix that too | May 18, 2005 |
Thank you for bringing that up, Vera.
I made that same mistake at the time I joined Proz. I didn't realize you could declare more than one native language, and there is no way I can fix that now. I wish newbies had a chance to edit their profiles when they start to know more about the site, their options, etc.
FWIW
Sarah
[Edited at 2005-05-18 21:24]
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Parrot
Spain
Local time: 17:28
Spanish to English
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| Frankly, I don't know what can be done | May 18, 2005 |
I just know the premise was: Big Brother (read, the ProZ.com server) presumes EVERYONE has A native language.
The problem is, with bilinguals, Big Brother no longer knows what it is (two declared native languages figure as grey).
This gives bilinguals the choice to figure as grey (in certain language pairs, particularly in relation to certain places, this is understood, anyway) or to figure as speaking their dominant native language, while reflecting their recessive nat... See more I just know the premise was: Big Brother (read, the ProZ.com server) presumes EVERYONE has A native language.
The problem is, with bilinguals, Big Brother no longer knows what it is (two declared native languages figure as grey).
This gives bilinguals the choice to figure as grey (in certain language pairs, particularly in relation to certain places, this is understood, anyway) or to figure as speaking their dominant native language, while reflecting their recessive native language in their working pairs and/or bibliographies (an option I chose).
sarahl, have you had problems in introducing your second native language? (There is no double-yellow icon). I ask because I presume ìt's not supposed to work that way. It was meant to accept a second native language (although I never tried it. If I did, I would throw Big Brother into a state of doubt).
But you can't talk about "changing native language" in the real world, so Big Brother doesn't "change" that easily. I don't even know if it will accept a third language or playing around with it, but I'm not willing to make that kind of claim. My third language was only latent and the fact that I speak it now as near-native was activated by my living where it was spoken. But I am an English speaker, and I want no doubts about that, so from the start that has to be defined. ▲ Collapse
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| Coming Soon: ProZ.com Native Speaker Credential | May 18, 2005 |
Is there any more information regarding how/when we will be able to take our creditial "test" for more than one native language?
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Greta Vera
Mexico
Local time: 09:28
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
TOPIC STARTER | Does it affect any potential job offering? | May 18, 2005 |
I am just concerned if declaring 2 native languages means less jobs since you can´t prove that you are bilingual, or if it really doesn't matter.... does anyone know????
I just can't belive that there isn't a way in the technical support area for us to change our native language... or even an email address so we can actually get in contact with the correct person! Or is there and I just don't know????
Greta
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gianfranco
Brazil
Local time: 12:28
Member (2001)
English to Italian
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| Contact the site support | May 18, 2005 |
Greta Vera wrote:
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I just can't belive that there isn't a way in the technical support area for us to change our native language... or even an email address so we can actually get in contact with the correct person! Or is there and I just don't know????
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Greta,
to contact the technical support, please use the support page (last item on the menu above) and describe your problem.
Removing yout Native language settings is a manual operation, a bit time consuming, and the site contains plenty of advice and warnings on the page where the Native language can be declared.
Getting it wrong should be rare and limited to very few cases of a genuine mistakes because the site cannot afford to change these information for many people.
Anyway, once the mistake is committed, it can be reversed.
Gianfranco
[Edited at 2005-05-18 23:52]
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Robert Donahue (X)
Russian to English
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| That brings up an interesting question... | May 19, 2005 |
Gianfranco Manca wrote:
Removing yout Native language settings is a manual operation, a bit time consuming, and the site contains plenty of advice and warnings on the page where the Native language can be declared.
Getting it wrong should be rare and limited to very few cases of a genuine mistakes because the site cannot afford to change these information for many people.
Anyway, once the mistake is committed, it can be reversed.
Gianfranco
[Edited at 2005-05-18 23:52]
So what happens when someone declares two native languages but can't prove it? If they can prove native ability in one language but not the other than obviously it would have to be changed, right? If it's that complicated to change it then I anticipate some major issues when the testing process kicks off.
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Parrot
Spain
Local time: 17:28
Spanish to English
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| Potential job offerings and being bilingual | May 19, 2005 |
I'm not aware that two native languages in grey adversely affect any translators obviously and visibly linked to both native languages.
Example: bilingual French/English Canadians do not seem to have problems. Persons whose profiles reflect backgrounds in Catalunya and who declare themselves natives in Spanish and Catalan do not have any problems. Bilinguals in Spanish/Galician do not have any problems, probably owing to ground already broken (there are enough Galician Spanish langu... See more I'm not aware that two native languages in grey adversely affect any translators obviously and visibly linked to both native languages.
Example: bilingual French/English Canadians do not seem to have problems. Persons whose profiles reflect backgrounds in Catalunya and who declare themselves natives in Spanish and Catalan do not have any problems. Bilinguals in Spanish/Galician do not have any problems, probably owing to ground already broken (there are enough Galician Spanish language experts to merit reconsideration of a bilingual status). Ditto for French/Flemish natives based in Belgium, French/Arabic bilinguals in Algeria, English/Gaelic bilinguals from Ireland, Scotland or Wales. But this is information that outsourcers are already familiar with.
There are other bilingualisms (or even trilingualisms) that have to be accounted for in other ways, however. ▲ Collapse
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Can Altinbay
Local time: 11:28
Japanese to English
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In memoriam | Other bilingualisms | May 19, 2005 |
Parrot wrote:
I'm not aware that two native languages in grey adversely affect any translators obviously and visibly linked to both native languages.
Example: bilingual French/English Canadians do not seem to have problems. Persons whose profiles reflect backgrounds in Catalunya and who declare themselves natives in Spanish and Catalan do not have any problems. Bilinguals in Spanish/Galician do not have any problems, probably owing to ground already broken (there are enough Galician Spanish language experts to merit reconsideration of a bilingual status). Ditto for French/Flemish natives based in Belgium, French/Arabic bilinguals in Algeria, English/Gaelic bilinguals from Ireland, Scotland or Wales. But this is information that outsourcers are already familiar with.
There are other bilingualisms (or even trilingualisms) that have to be accounted for in other ways, however.
I was born and raised in Japan, was educated entirely in English, and have spent the last 30 years here in the US. I read Japanese books. I read "Travels to the West", you may know the story as that of the Monkey King, in Japanese. It is an old Chinese tale that runs 3000 pages and is not easy even in Japanese translation. So I claim both Japanese and English as native languages.
My people are Turks from a part of Russia.
So there are totally off the wall bilingualisms, too.
And then there are people who claim English is their native tongue and who... I'll stop before I get myself into further trouble.
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sarahl (X)
Local time: 08:28
English to French
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Can Altinbay wrote:
So there are totally off the wall bilingualisms, too.
Hi Can (or konnichiwa or merhava)
I can totally relate. Let us not forget that a number of interpreters -translators too but to a lesser extent- grew up in a multilingual, multicultural environment. Hence the off-the-wall cases you mention.
Sarah
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Can Altinbay
Local time: 11:28
Japanese to English
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In memoriam | A quote from Xola | May 20, 2005 |
sarahl wrote: Can Altinbay wrote:
So there are totally off the wall bilingualisms, too.
Hi Can (or konnichiwa or merhava) I can totally relate. Let us not forget that a number of interpreters -translators too but to a lesser extent- grew up in a multilingual, multicultural environment. Hence the off-the-wall cases you mention. Sarah
May I relate something Xola, the moderator of one of the Turkish-connected forums, wrote when I introduced myself in the Turkish forum?
"I admit I was wondering about this person whose name is Turkish, whose native tongues are Japanese and Engilsh, and who uses a picture of my cat in his profile."
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