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A tip for success we rarely discuss.

newsmike

By newsmike
in Tips from Sellers

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newsmike Grand Master

newsmike

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I offer this advice to truly help with a problem I see every day on the forum and in many gigs. It is not meant to offend, but as constructive advice. 

Like it or not, fiverr is an English based platform in a global economy. Without sugar coating this, there are thousands of posts here with terribly broken English. If you are not a native speaker, the best thing you can do is polish your English skills. There are some non native speakers here who are as proficient as if they were born in the US. However, they are not the majority.

I would never join a site run in Italian, French or Chinese, and expect to be successful, even with Google translate.

Secret: Google translate is good enough to get you to the train station in any language. It is terrible at fixing verb tenses and probably mis-conjugates verbs as often as it gets them right. That's why we keep seeing huge tells like:

No sales since one week, I am new in fiverr, and hundreds more. 

In the forum we tend to just look past these things, and occasionally snicker at the most egregious. But in the gig arena, and in your messaging to clients, this will be a make or break. If I sense communications issues, I will always look to find someone who can easily communicate with me.  And on fiverr, English is king.

 

 

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katakatica Grand Master

katakatica

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It's difficult to be a non-native freelancer: there's already a "stigma" on us in most fields. (I used to be heckled a lot when I was applying to teaching jobs. Makes sense, but when you start with a disadvantage, you NEED to learn how to deal with it - or make it into an advantage, if possible.)

The cool thing is, one can ALWAYS keep take classes/or even commit to a free speaking course online that can help - one of the main excuses I used to give (for my French, mostly) was "but it's so expensive!" True - but there's plenty of free classes, too. When there's a will, there's way! (I'm rambling about all this so people who are struggling to start with don't get discouraged when they read the rest of my post!)

I feel like the main issue here is communication as a whole. Not necessarily grammar/vocab issues per say but stuff like... understanding and being able to express yourself. It's a whole lot different from just being able to skim through a few pages of a book and 'kinda get' what one's reading. I can understand about 10% of written mandarin I see on sites/when I read comics - but that's nowhere near enough to actually WORK in the language. (...I tried.) 

I might tell someone - I want a purple pony with a green horn and pink wings - but when you put that through google translate (or try to solve that riddle on your own) you might mess up the order. The pony might end up green with a pink horn and purple wings. It's a small error, can be revised easily but when you think bigger than just a single drawing (like, websites, or music, videos, etc.) OR even hundreds of illustrations, not being able to understand the gist of what's someone is asked to do can cause issues. 

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azadfardin01 Enthusiast

azadfardin01

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1 hour ago, katakatica said:

but when you start with a disadvantage, you NEED to learn how to deal with it - or make it into an advantage, if possible.

Agreed, not being a native speaker has it perks, as you're more likely to receive orders from buyers from your country. I received a handful of orders from buyers from Italy, but I wouldn't have gone anywhere without clients from all around the world, only 10% of all the orders I've received so far were from other Italians.

 

4 hours ago, newsmike said:

Secret: Google translate is good enough to get you to the train station in any language. It is terrible at fixing verb tenses and probably mis-conjugates verbs as often as it gets them right.

I've been on Fiverr for 7 months and still can't spell 'definitely' without using Google Translate or double checking, lol

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coderboss Mentor

coderboss

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I appriciate what are you talking about but you know more than 80% seller here from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India where english ain't their native language. Although our Indian subcontinant's people are good in english than spanish or eastarn europian people.

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maitasun Grand Master

maitasun

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6 hours ago, katakatica said:

I feel like the main issue here is communication as a whole. Not necessarily grammar/vocab issues per say but stuff like... understanding and being able to express yourself. It's a whole lot different from just being able to skim through a few pages of a book and 'kinda get' what one's reading.

This! ☝️
I agree with you 💯
 

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mariashtelle1 Grand Master

mariashtelle1

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2 minutes ago, coderboss said:

I didn't meant that.

👇

6 hours ago, katakatica said:

I feel like the main issue here is communication as a whole. Not necessarily grammar/vocab issues per say but stuff like... understanding and being able to express yourself. It's a whole lot different from just being able to skim through a few pages of a book and 'kinda get' what one's reading.

 

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katakatica Grand Master

katakatica

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18 minutes ago, coderboss said:

I appriciate what are you talking about but you know more than 80% seller here from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India

As an Eastern European who works mostly in English (and is fluent is two other romantic languages albeit not Spanish) I think you've just proven the point right.

But that's not the issue - the internet doesn't care where you're from. You need to be able to understand instructions (I'm not saying you in particular aren't I'm saying this in general) and REPLY to those accordingly. The flag on your profile doesn't matter - your performance does. 

Will I be more patient with people whose first language (or second) isn't English? Of course. But in a business setting where I have options for a similar price who can understand me better - I might end up choosing the latter. This is why learning is always a good idea. 

 

(If everyone who claims to be open 12-24 hours put 4 of that into an intensive free English course...)

(Edit: not sure if I quoted it right my phone is being funky. )

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coderboss Mentor

coderboss

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2 minutes ago, katakatica said:

As an Eastern European who works mostly in English (and is fluent is two other romantic languages albeit not Spanish) I think you've just proven the point right.

But that's not the issue - the internet doesn't care where you're from. You need to be able to understand instructions (I'm not saying you in particular aren't I'm saying this in general) and REPLY to those accordingly. The flag on your profile doesn't matter - your performance does. 

Will I be more patient with people whose first language (or second) isn't English? Of course. But in a business setting where I have options for a similar price who can understand me better - I might end up choosing the latter. This is why learning is always a good idea. 

(If everyone who claims to be open 12-24 hours put 4 of that into an intensive free English course...)

I support the way are you thinking.

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zeus777 Grand Master

zeus777

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5 hours ago, azadfardin01 said:

I've been on Fiverr for 7 months and still can't spell 'definitely' without using Google Translate or double checking, lol

I've been on Fiverr for 10 years, I offer translation here, but I STILL have problems when it comes to spelling the words
weird, license, and San Fransisco.  It took me a while to get "restaurant" correct as well...

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newsmike Grand Master

newsmike

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1 hour ago, zeus777 said:

I offer translation here, but I STILL have problems when it comes to spelling the words
weird, license, and San Fransisco.  It took me a while to get "restaurant" correct as well...

I know you are in Japan, but I always thought you were as close to a native English speaker (and writer) as it gets. 

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theratypist Grand Master

theratypist

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1 hour ago, katakatica said:

But that's not the issue - the internet doesn't care where you're from.

It was only here on Fiverr that I learned how "Knock on you" means a lot differently from what I'm used to. I'm used to it being related to boxing, making someone unconscious. But here I see a lot using it as something like to reach out 😅 I had to google if that really was an official phrase or it was just a common translation. To this day I am not sure on the exact meaning but I still see it coming up a lot. 😂

I think if I was a tourist visiting the country and I was told such I would be fine. However, if I was a buyer that might slightly bother me. Not a deal breaker but makes you realize how much you need to understand about how an English based platform works.

My English might not be the best but I'm glad I can communicate enough to get my point across. I get terrified when I see a lot of (usually new) sellers offer article writing or proofreading with their gig description already messed up and yet they still ask why they haven't gotten an order. 😅 

A dose of self-awareness is needed for a lot of new sellers who expect an order right away. 

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