Tips For Sellers Who Are Not Native English Speakers

[amitkaria]

Ah come on… i agree that we Indians are not so good at written English or spoken… Well let me say it like this…
Iam not good at it… but iam very good at Hindi which is my native language and iam proud to say that we Indians have proved ourselves worldwide Read these (http://www.thebetterindia.com/14725/famous-nri-non-resident-indian-made-india-proud-globally/.) and this (http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/sundar-pichai-and-other-indian-origin-ceos/article7525835.ece).

and moreover i have studied in a remote village where our school hardly taught us English… all that i could learn was from the thrown away newspapers which we used for Eating and when i came to the city to pursue better education i had responsibility to look after my father who had met with a Serious Accident…but this is not an excuse… Iam still learning and i hope someday ill be better at both written & spoken English 🙂

[writer99025]

Okay 🙂

[writer99025]

Yeah, I guess there’s an element of natural bias against non-native English speakers. That’s why my proofreading Gigs have never quite taken off. But no worries, I’ve got other Gigs 🙂

[writer99025]

I should stay away from Fiverr forum…bunch of people telling me (or my kind) what I am not good at and what I shouldn’t do 🙂

[writer99025]

Amit, we (Indians) don’t really need to prove anything to anyone. We are just as good (or bad) as anyone. Don’t pay attention to the naysayers, just do your best and find out where you can get a competitive edge over others. Sure, there is an inherest bias against non-native speakers, but you can overcome it by working harder, better and smarter than your competitors. Don’t complain, don’t offer excuses, don’t get upset and develop a really thick skin. That’s all I can say. Cheers 🙂

[writer99025]

LOL…before somebody picks out mistakes in that post…those were typos. I know it’s “inherent”. Thanks 🙂

[writer99025]

And finally Amit (as well as other Fiverr newbies who are here), it’s not about you, it’s about the buyer. You won’t make much money here unless you solve a need or provide some value to the buyer. Most buyers on Fiverr are wonderful people - I have been here for 2 years, worked with over 1200 buyers, and have had only a handful of bad experiences. They have a real and urgent need that needs to be fulfilled. They don’t really care if you are from India or the US as long as you give them full value for their money. Focus on the buyer - it’s not about you, it’s about them. Remember that!

[writer99025]

Fully agree with this: “I’m in Europe, and $5 isn’t that much here. It’s worth a lot more in other places. If you’re in a country where it goes further, awesome. Put that work in, because you’re getting so much extra value out of Fiverr than some of us!”

[amitkaria]

Thank you so much… i will follow your advice …it really means a lot… Finally i found good TRS from India… 🙂 Chakde India !

[writer99025]

But I don’t agree with the points made by you, of course. I don’t think it’s fair to generalize. I’m just saying that most people think the same way as you do, which puts someone like me from India at a disadvantage. I feel people think twice about hiring my services (because of the inherent bias), but once they do, and see what I can do for them, it comes as a pleasant surprise for them, and they stick with me for the long term.

[writer99025]

LOL…my first day at Fiverr forum in the 2 years that I’ve been here, and I have already wasted enough time to make up for all that. Okay, people, back to work…Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. Bye!

[eoinfinnegan]

Hi @amitkaria and @writer99025 In response to your comments above can I just say this. I hesitated in making the original post as I was concerned about two things.

1. That non-native English speakers would feel I was being critical or negative about their work, culture or business - I am not
2. That this post could become a place with a native speaker versus non native speaker argument - it’s not supposed to be, it is intended as a helpful guide to help you do business better with English speakers.

You definitely don’t have to prove anything about yourselves or your country to me. Your people have made huge contributions both to Fiverr and the world in general. I enjoy working with people from India and many other countries as I mentioned in my post. I would be lying if I said that part of the reason wasn’t the price offered, but it is more than that, the quality of work, in particular design and tech related work, is fantastic. The work ethic I have found is great and the willingness to do the work quickly and effectively is second to none. Like any country, some Indian people do not live up to this statement but for me, this has as much to do with the mentality of the employer as with the employee.

Many English speaker’s experience of Indian people comes from dealing with call centers, who never have a good reputation anyway - regardless of the country, but many Western countries hired call center employees as cheaply as possible meaning a lot of the employees had poor English. This has left a bad impression on many English speakers when the actual issue was the Western company being cheap and not training the staff.

By following the basic ideas in my post and those of some of the comments, non-native speakers can avoid doing the things that irritate native English speakers.

[writer99025]

I understand, thank you for clarifying.

[Guest leadingservice]

Thanks!

[corsara]

Wow! So much truth :). I have a proofreading gig, and I was looking for a gig with bad English as my example, and the worst were so bad I couldn’t even understand it!!

[misscrystal]

English is the language of hope and opportunity. Two billion people are learning English. China is the world’ biggest English speaking country.
Just as music is the language of emotions, and math is the language of science, English is the language of opportunity.

Chinese students begin learning English in the third grade. When they graduate, 25% of their final grade is based on how they do on English tests.
Knowing how to read and write English well means a good job, good housing, feeding your family.

Being able to read and write English well probably is one excellent indication of whether or not you will be successful on fiverr.

[Guest deluxe_writer]

Well, I’m not trying to be condescending as I actually realize the essence behind this post, which is to make things easier for non-native writers but I do not see the desired effects. There is nothing more discriminating than a stereotypic perspective against a person’s genuine innate and acquired skills, based on an ethnocentric disposition.
Furthermore, there are also grammatical errors in the comments here by these so-called native speakers. How does one justify these anomalies?
It’s a good thing not everyone is prejudiced.
I am a proofreader on Fiverr, and I can give native speakers a good run for their money! Time and chance will tell.
To all non-native speakers; don’t allow anyone to define who you are.

Cheers.

[misscrystal]

“There is nothing more discriminating than a stereotypic perspective against a person’s genuine innate and acquired skills, based on an ethnocentric disposition.”

We aren’t talking about a few small grammatical errors but the type of almost indecipherable gigs we sometimes see, and sellers asking why they get no sales.
This question is asked so frequently by those who have almost illegible gigs that this is why we are discussing it. No one here is discriminatory and ethnocentric. All we have here is our ability to communicate to get our message across in our gigs. Without that ability, no sales.

[emmaki]

Well, I would say that using an inordinately verbose lexicon to commute to the hoi polloi is really no different from a “u do me gig plz” communique. I got bored with trying to be fancy English.

“There is nothing more discriminating than a stereotypic perspective against a person’s genuine innate and acquired skills, based on an ethnocentric disposition.”

=

Don’t be nasty because someone isn’t as good as you are at something, because of race or something, but the words sounded nice didn’t they?

Stereotypical, btw, proofreader. (comment for deluxe rather than misscristal, sorry fr any confusion)

[misscrystal]

No matter how you say it, it doesn’t apply to what we are talking about.

[Guest deluxe_writer]

How would it sound, if we were to focus on native speakers with a bad command of English language? Maybe more verbose! The focus should be on the skills of the seller, not ethnocentrism.

[emmaki]

Jesus wept. I agree that the skills are more imprtant than the ability to speak Englishwo (unless, you know, you’re an article writer/proofreader/whatever).

Stop using ethnocentrism. Ethnocentric towards/against what? You checked out the slghtly (very) racist definitions of the word? Are you prepared to apply those to something without creed, color or something like that to words and communication on a global marketplace which requires a global language?

By its very definition the global language of CAPITALISM that involves MONEY and GOOD BUSINESS needs CLEAR COMMUNICATION.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethnocentrism

Man, you know big words, but you don’t understand them. Well done you? 100 years ago it would be French. 500 years ago latin. Roman times, Greek. Greek was the de facto lingua franco of the roman empire.

But please, tell me more about your opinions on ethnofarcism. All these systems required a a good command of whatever fing language it was to get ahead. It will be the same with sdtwou, the language of the 30th century.

Verbosity gets you nowhere. Communication does. JHC.

[misscrystal]

The focus of the discussion as I’m sure you realize is communication and the need for it in order to present a gig so that it gets sales.

[misscrystal]

No one is saying anything racist by saying that well written gigs get sales. There are Europeans --Germans and French among others, who can’t write English so that it is understandable.

[amitkaria]

@eoinfinnegan thank you so much… iam sorry for my outburst … i just got carried away 🙂 Trust me you all TRS Sellers are Awesome and the way you guys deal with situations is really great …Thanks !