Problems with English

[donnaowen]

Has anyone else had problems with buyers from the UK not understanding their English? I feel like there might be a slight language barrier.



I just got a 3 start review after a in depth blog about pivot tables. I had assistance from an expert to make sure it covered the topic, was simple enough to be understood by anyone and even changed the word ‘optimized’, that we use in America to ‘maximized’ which they used when requesting the gig.



Apparently though, they had an issue with the quality of my English. I don’t quite understand why.

[Guest laughingcrow]

Could very well be. American English and British English have quite a few differences. Not just in pronunciation and vocabulary, but also in how things are phrased, especially stock phrases.



Then there’s the problem of the same word being spelled differently - like “optimised” and “optimized”. Even so, this cannot be a reason for cancellation unless the buyer specifically requested it to be British English compliant, I’d say.

[goodgift]

I ran into this issue some with my book trailer gig. There definitely is a noticeable difference between British English and American English. I was able to resolve these issues with my buyers by simply reminding them that we’re on opposite sides of the pond. Not everyone will be as understanding, but it would seem a fairly simple thing to me for the buyer to read over what was given and fix the issues. That’s what my clients would do. They’d just send me a list of the things that needed to be changed, and I’d change them. I mean, yes, there are differences, but it’s not nearly as extreme as English to non-English. Usually it’s spelling (using “s” instead of “z” or “-our” instead of “-or”, things like that) or phrasing (differing words such as optimize/maximize), or things like that. Those are generally a glaring issue to the native speaker.



You should just ask if the buyer would kindly point out the errors. The person will help you, or they won’t. Either way, this will be a great learning experience for you. 😉