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Looking for a native English speaker informant
Thread poster: Xin Peng
Xin Peng
Xin Peng
China
English to Chinese
+ ...
Nov 19, 2022

Hi, can anyone who's a native speaker of English have a look at my C-E translation homework and see if the language is authentic? We can exchange languages if possible. A million thanks in advance!!

pengx1234567
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 19:31
French to English
. Nov 21, 2022

Are you seriously asking us to help you cheat in your studies?

Tom in London
Ester Vidal
expressisverbis
Serena Balasi
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Aline Amorim
Renée van Bijsterveld
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:31
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Look Nov 23, 2022

Xin Peng wrote:

Hi, can anyone who's a native speaker of English have a look at my C-E translation homework and see if the language is authentic? We can exchange languages if possible. A million thanks in advance!!


I can take a look and tell you if it's good, bad, or terrible but I won't correct it for you.


Jorge Payan
 
Xin Peng
Xin Peng
China
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
No it's actually part of the assignment requirement to find a native speaker informant. Nov 24, 2022

Kay Denney wrote:

Are you seriously asking us to help you cheat in your studies?



It's an assignment intended for practice which does not count toward the final grade. And we've asked to have informants.


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 19:31
French to English
. Nov 25, 2022

Xin Peng wrote:

It's an assignment intended for practice which does not count toward the final grade. And we've asked to have informants.


OK I see. I'm afraid I don't do favours for strangers, and I don't take paid work from clients outside the euro zone. This is a professional forum, and I think a lot of people might react the same as me. You would probably be better off asking fellow students to help out, that way at least you can exchange favours.

But honestly, a course where success depends on you getting someone else to help you, I find that really strange and unfair, in that your success will depend on who you know rather than what you know. I know that's how the world often works, but study is supposed to be something that attenuates nepotism, and here it's perpetuating it.

Oh and the word "informant" is probably not what you mean, and it's a pretty negatively loaded word.



[Edited at 2022-11-25 08:18 GMT]


expressisverbis
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Michael Newton
Jennifer Levey
 
pengx1234567
pengx1234567
United Kingdom
. Nov 25, 2022

Kay Denney wrote:

Xin Peng wrote:

It's an assignment intended for practice which does not count toward the final grade. And we've asked to have informants.


OK I see. I'm afraid I don't do favours for strangers, and I don't take paid work from clients outside the euro zone. This is a professional forum, and I think a lot of people might react the same as me. You would probably be better off asking fellow students to help out, that way at least you can exchange favours.

But honestly, a course where success depends on you getting someone else to help you, I find that really strange and unfair, in that your success will depend on who you know rather than what you know. I know that's how the world often works, but study is supposed to be something that attenuates nepotism, and here it's perpetuating it.

Oh and the word "informant" is probably not what you mean, and it's a pretty negatively loaded word.



[Edited at 2022-11-25 08:18 GMT]



Thank you. I ended up asking for someone from another department for help. The word “Informants” is specifically written in our assignment requirements and module handbook😂 (I come from school of modern languages, Newcastle University) and I didn’t realise what was wrong. And this site is specifically mentioned by our module leader saying we would be able to find informants here…And I did feel like a large portion of my time has been spent on looking for someone for help apart from researching on my own.
Thank you very much for your advice.


 
Michele Fauble
Michele Fauble  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 10:31
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
Linguistic informant Nov 25, 2022

Kay Denney wrote:

Oh and the word "informant" is probably not what you mean, and it's a pretty negatively loaded word.



[Edited at 2022-11-25 08:18 GMT]


“Informant” is an established term in linguistics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informant_(linguistics)


Arabic & More
Korana Lasić
Kevin Fulton
Kay Denney
neilmac
expressisverbis
 
Korana Lasić
Korana Lasić  Identity Verified
Member
Serbian to English
+ ...
Hmmm Nov 25, 2022

pengx1234567 wrote:

Kay Denney wrote:

Xin Peng wrote:

It's an assignment intended for practice which does not count toward the final grade. And we've asked to have informants.


OK I see. I'm afraid I don't do favours for strangers, and I don't take paid work from clients outside the euro zone. This is a professional forum, and I think a lot of people might react the same as me. You would probably be better off asking fellow students to help out, that way at least you can exchange favours.

But honestly, a course where success depends on you getting someone else to help you, I find that really strange and unfair, in that your success will depend on who you know rather than what you know. I know that's how the world often works, but study is supposed to be something that attenuates nepotism, and here it's perpetuating it.

Oh and the word "informant" is probably not what you mean, and it's a pretty negatively loaded word.



[Edited at 2022-11-25 08:18 GMT]

Thank you. I ended up asking for someone from another department for help. The word “Informants” is specifically written in our assignment requirements and module handbook😂 (I come from school of modern languages, Newcastle University) and I didn’t realise what was wrong. And this site is specifically mentioned by our module leader saying we would be able to find informants here…And I did feel like a large portion of my time has been spent on looking for someone for help apart from researching on my own.
Thank you very much for your advice.


It boggles the mind that any serious educator would mention proz.com as a place where their students may find willing, free (helpful) consultants. The atmosphere here is quite toxic. Proz.com forum is basically Twitter's boomer uncle. This isn't dissimilar to telling students to go on Twitter and ask the average Twitter user for a favour. Although, against the odds, you did actually find one helpful soul. Tom's kind heart hasn't frosted over yet, despite staring at proz.com forum whilst the abyss of it stares back at him for as long as he has.

Good luck with your studies, Xin Peng!

[Edited at 2022-11-26 04:07 GMT]


Michael Newton
Mr. Satan (X)
Cilian O'Tuama
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:31
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Not so Nov 26, 2022

Korana Lasić wrote:. The atmosphere here is quite toxic.


Not so. I find the atmosphere here helpful, informative, stimulating, intelligent, and sometimes fun.


Kay Denney
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
neilmac
Christine Andersen
MollyRose
Ryan Shevlane
 
Matthias Brombach
Matthias Brombach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 19:31
Member (2007)
Dutch to German
+ ...
And from the heart of the abyss... Nov 26, 2022

Korana Lasić wrote: Tom's kind heart hasn't frosted over yet, despite staring at proz.com forum whilst the abyss of it stares back at him for as long as he has.


...I would add: quite entertaining!

[Bearbeitet am 2022-11-26 10:21 GMT]


Kevin Fulton
expressisverbis
 
Korana Lasić
Korana Lasić  Identity Verified
Member
Serbian to English
+ ...
Oh, I'm sure you do! Nov 26, 2022

Tom in London wrote:

Korana Lasić wrote:. The atmosphere here is quite toxic.


Not so. I find the atmosphere here helpful, informative, stimulating, intelligent, and sometimes fun.

I know you do, Tom, I know you do! You should indeed enjoy whatever you find helpful, informative, stimulating, intelligent, and sometimes fun. I will do the same myself. Which will unfortunately limit this interaction to a short — happy winter solstice, dear Tom — from me!

I do agree that you, personally, often try to be helpful to the newcomers. That's a really nice trait on your part. The rest of it, let's just agree to disagree like two adults should when, in their communication, they run into a profound disagreement.


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 19:31
French to English
. Nov 26, 2022

Michele Fauble wrote:

Kay Denney wrote:

Oh and the word "informant" is probably not what you mean, and it's a pretty negatively loaded word.



[Edited at 2022-11-25 08:18 GMT]


“Informant” is an established term in linguistics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informant_(linguistics)

Thanks for educating me!
And inadvertently confirming my opinion of linguistics!


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 19:31
French to English
. Nov 26, 2022

Korana Lasić wrote:

The atmosphere here is quite toxic. Proz.com forum is basically Twitter's boomer uncle.


Of course demonstrating ageism and generalisation doesn't exactly help to foster an atmosphere conducive to cooperation and so on.
Maybe you could volunteer as a moderator to keep us all in check.


Christopher Schröder
Tom in London
Baran Keki
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
neilmac
 
Korana Lasić
Korana Lasić  Identity Verified
Member
Serbian to English
+ ...
I shall call this one The Usual Suspects + Kay :) Nov 26, 2022

Kay Denney wrote:

Korana Lasić wrote:

The atmosphere here is quite toxic. Proz.com forum is basically Twitter's boomer uncle.


Of course demonstrating ageism and generalisation doesn't exactly help to foster an atmosphere conducive to cooperation and so on.
Maybe you could volunteer as a moderator to keep us all in check.


Oh dear! Maybe not! It would be nice if I could express my points of view without you snapping at me testily, though, but this is OK too!

Luckily for all of us, I don't need any cooperation with/from people on the forum. I wasn't complaining about the state of the forum but simply observing a state of affairs that is, at the end of the day, fine with me. I'm not much of a forum person, you see!

As a purely rhetorical question! I'm not entirely sure how one could give their opinion of the overall atmosphere of this place without a degree of generalisation?

The ageism remark is nothing but a tongue-in-cheek remark of one old(er) person regarding other old(er) people, but I don't expect your quickness to annoyance and irritability or the need to find an insult for yourself in my post(s), to be conducive to reading into my post properly enough to grasp the intended humour!

Have a good day, Kay! I've about said everything I've the need to say, in your general direction, for now! Your irritable affect disagrees with me. So, allow me to sum everything up into these 'obviously very seriously meant words, so letter for letter, all people even a day older than myself should be terribly offended, as is my intention':

OK boomer! *wink*


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Informed Nov 26, 2022

We must always be careful not to read things into what people write, especially non-native speakers.

I thought “informant” sounded odd too but you learn something new every day.


expressisverbis
Kay Denney
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Kaspars Melkis
 
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