Posts by uk guy

uk guy

6 Jan 2008

UK, Ireland / What's So Great About The UK? [416]

That's not what I said. I have "papers", "credentials" - but from Poland. I have qualifications and titles, and 10 years of experience, and I do not want a "highly paid job" - I want a chance to prove that I am good at what I do. That is all. That almighty exam would set me back 1/3 of my monthly income. I am already in debt and absolutely cannot go any further down that road. I used to think that experience, a university degree, a professional attitude, several translated books to my name etc. would account for something.

With the huge amount of Poles coming to the UK I would guess that there are many potential translators and interpreters now here. If employers have such a huge pool to pick from, then obviously the ones that have more qualifications are the ones that will get the best work. I don't see why you would expect any different. That said though, the same applies to us Brits too. In my profession (software development) having a degree and experience is not enough to land the best jobs. You must keep up to date with many very expensive courses.

There are many things that make employing foreign people into professional jobs very difficult...What does the qualification mean? Was the university Poland's equivalent to Oxford, or Bournemouth? Is the qualification genuine? Who are the references? Having a good CV will count for little. Everyone applying for the job will have a good CV. This is why internationally recognised qualifications are so important.

I would actually love to go back to Poland, as my primary goal (of improving my English) has been, I think, already reached, but I would hate to go back as empty-handed as I had left. And I had left empty-handed because of personal stuff which meant leaving my home and my thriving translation business behind. I thought I would make it in a year or two and come back victorious. It's more a question of staying afloat now.

I think it is this attitude that annoys some Brits a little. There is the assumption that you should be able to come here for a bit and leave with more than you arrived with.

uk guy

7 Jan 2008

UK, Ireland / What's So Great About The UK? [416]

If I am the "she" you mean, I would have nothing against paying a fixed fee per visit - 20 pounds, say. When I first arrived, and I bet many other Poles had the same assumption, I was absolutely prepared to have to pay for any health care given to me. The thing is, I cannot change the system - your government would have to do that. Even if every immigrant insisted upon paying for NHS care, there is no system in place which would enable such payment to take place, even from a basic accounting point of view. Who should take the money? The GP, the Primary Care Trust, the Council?

You could go private. The trouble would be you would have to pay what the health care actually costs, not a £20 donation.

It will be the ones with the British qualification who will get the best work.

Obviously. You are in Britain. British qualifications are the qualifications your potential employers understand. An internationally recognised qualification is still better than a foreign one though. As I explained before, there are issues when recruiting foreign staff. Why would a potential employer take the risk if the market is flooded? This may change over time however.

While interpreting, I met an English health visitor, and we got to chatting of this and that. She told me that she had spent most of her working life abroad (in Australia), where she worked in health care and gained lots of experience. When she returned to the UK, all her professional experience was declared unimportant and it was back to square one for her. This is why I said that the British are not interested in experience and expertise gained abroad. And this is why I spoke of a class system firmly in place.

I guess that this is because given our rules and regulations, she would still need to be re-trained in every area. This is not surprising in health care as the standards and rules are different in other countries.

A translator is more like a football player than a lawyer. Either he/she delivers or not. If a footballer is good in Spain, he is equally good at his job when moved to Monaco.

Don't get me started on this analogy. The English Premier League is the best league in the world! Many professionals do well in Italy and Spain, but fail here. :)

If I am capable of interpreting financial negotiations with American partners in Poland, I am then equally capable of interpreting financial negotiations with Polish partners in the US. If I am a lousy interpreter though, no exam however costly and no certificate will be able to help when the time comes to show what I'm made of.

Agreed. I'm sure you are a very competent interpreter. Your language skills seem excellent from what I have seen here. All I am doing though is explaining why employers are reluctant to take the chance on you.

What is wrong with that?

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it, just that it is why some people get annoyed. From observations in other threads here, the main concern seems to be that it is bad for our economy.

uk guy

7 Jan 2008

UK, Ireland / What's So Great About The UK? [416]

I know what I say now will be considered racist and politically incorrect, but still: think of the mass of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants in the UK who never pay taxes or National Insurance, and very often don't work at all, but nevertheless receive free housing, medical care, education etc. etc. Yet the public opinion concerns itself entirely with those terrible, troublesome Poles - why is that?

I think you are wrong here. You see this because you frequent this site. I'm sure if you looked on C18's web site you would find that illegals are considered much more of a problem than Poles. My comment was posted as a solution to your 'who to pay' problem,. I agree with you though, you make your contributions, you get the health care.

Sure, no problem with that - to a certain point. I just checked the price of the IoL DipTrans examination - I thought I remembered it cost somewhere in the area of 200 pounds. I was wrong though. The exam consists of several parts and the overall cost can exceed 500 pounds (i.e., my typical monthly income). So what criterion is really being used here - language skills or level of overall affluence? Why is the fee so exorbitant?

That's life. The streets of London are not paved with gold. Those prices are cheap in comparison with many of the software development courses I have had to purchase.

When I first arrived, I thought I would enter a free market in which the English-innocent Poles would seek out people like me to translate and interpret for them. They would pay me out of their own pocket, and I would then pay Her Majesty any taxes and contributions due. Thus, my clients' salaries would have effectively been taxed twice, a nice thing for any economy, I would think, and I would still have plenty of clients and money for myself.
Sounds nice?

Your clients salaries are not being taxed twice. Your clients salary is being taxed, then yours is. The key here is that there are two people taking advantage of our services, and two people paying tax.

I don't know how it works out accounting-wise, but e.g. a surgery pays the council for my service, the council pays me a certain amount of that, and the rest of the money goes into keeping the council interpreting service going, I guess. I earn very little, the end user (the Pole) pays nothing, the intermediary (surgery or school) pays 100%. I don't think the economy likes that terribly, and I am not happy with the solution either. The only totally satisfied person is the end user, who gets a specialized service for free.

So your situation is made worse because taxpayers are subsidising Polish immigrants translation fees. How ironic.

I do feel for you, honestly, but the more you say I just feel that the supply is far greater than the demand for your skills, so you will struggle. Where I work there are many Polish people who's English is almost perfect so maybe it is not seen as a professional job as such. Have you thought of looking at specific areas? A lot of the Poles where I am fall down when talking technical.