green427
Active Member
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2010
- Messages
- 1,882
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Future interpreters: Take note....
I have a VP-200 at my office. I had to subcontract some of my work out to another company since I had way too much on my plate. That company happens to be a big worldwide company, and they used to have their own engineering department in the good ole USA. Not anymore.....
....that company outsourced the engineering department to India. These Indians took crash courses in English and other languages to serve "the whole world". They don't like to do email, and want to talk instead.
Whenever my boss has a teleconference call with them, he always has to squint to try to understand what the hell they are saying. 50% of the time he is guessing what they are saying with their thick Indian accents. I have recently been put in charge of answering the Indians' questions for a big project. Wonderful.
You can see where this is leading...
Ok, I email them to sort out some issues, but they have a lot of questions for me. I am talking serious, technical questions. So what do they do? They call me via VP directly from India. Talk about awkward moments.
I have never seen interpreters get so frustrated. "I'm sorry? What did you say? Could you repeat that again please?" has been repeated at least 100 times. The interpreters end up getting 2-3 more on the line to see if they can figure out what the hell they are saying. In the meantime I am sitting back and watching this big cluster f*ck unfold. Happens every time I have a phone call with them. It takes one hour for 3 or 4 questions to be answered. The interpreters can't understand them, the Indians can't understand the interpreter, the interpreter has no clue what I am saying when I speak engineering jargon.
To ease the interpreter's pain, I switched to VCO to explain to the Indians what I am saying.
I told my bosses about it, they laughed and said that it is equally frustrating for them as well. No matter now, we told them we are not doing any more business with them, it is faster and easier to pay us to work overtime than to subcontract our work out.
It just adds to my general disgust at big companies outsourcing jobs just to save a few bucks. That trend appears to be changing now, thankfully.
I have a VP-200 at my office. I had to subcontract some of my work out to another company since I had way too much on my plate. That company happens to be a big worldwide company, and they used to have their own engineering department in the good ole USA. Not anymore.....
....that company outsourced the engineering department to India. These Indians took crash courses in English and other languages to serve "the whole world". They don't like to do email, and want to talk instead.
Whenever my boss has a teleconference call with them, he always has to squint to try to understand what the hell they are saying. 50% of the time he is guessing what they are saying with their thick Indian accents. I have recently been put in charge of answering the Indians' questions for a big project. Wonderful.
You can see where this is leading...
Ok, I email them to sort out some issues, but they have a lot of questions for me. I am talking serious, technical questions. So what do they do? They call me via VP directly from India. Talk about awkward moments.
I have never seen interpreters get so frustrated. "I'm sorry? What did you say? Could you repeat that again please?" has been repeated at least 100 times. The interpreters end up getting 2-3 more on the line to see if they can figure out what the hell they are saying. In the meantime I am sitting back and watching this big cluster f*ck unfold. Happens every time I have a phone call with them. It takes one hour for 3 or 4 questions to be answered. The interpreters can't understand them, the Indians can't understand the interpreter, the interpreter has no clue what I am saying when I speak engineering jargon.
To ease the interpreter's pain, I switched to VCO to explain to the Indians what I am saying.
I told my bosses about it, they laughed and said that it is equally frustrating for them as well. No matter now, we told them we are not doing any more business with them, it is faster and easier to pay us to work overtime than to subcontract our work out.
It just adds to my general disgust at big companies outsourcing jobs just to save a few bucks. That trend appears to be changing now, thankfully.