Job Discussion Forums

Angel46 · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 51 Location: Hangzhou

Has anyone been successful in securing part-time work advising corporations on the English content of their advertising, business proposals, correspondence, etc? I would like to put my many years of business experience to greater use if I stay in China for an indefinite period. What do you think - is such a plan possible?

clark.w.griswald · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2056

I think the problem with this concept is that there is generally a local person employed to do this on the premise that they have the ability to do this work. For the company to pay for outside assistance in polishing that persons work they would in effect be accepting that this person cannot do their job.

Also any letter that you sent to the company in English would probably sent to the very person whose job it is to write the terrible English that you are hoping to get paid to correct. I think it highly unlikely that this person would pass the idea onto their boss as they would in effect be admitting that they don't do their job properly.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Extremely few jobs for proofreaders here - try your luck with the CHINA DAILY, if you have that sort of mindset!
The Chinese don't know how ridiculous their "English" is, and won't want to know it.
Maybe you have a greater chance at an internationally-invested advertising company - note that some adverts are bilingual; however, you will need to know good Mandarin! It wouldn't be fair to give a monolingual English speaker a proofreading job for texts translated from another language, would it?

clark.w.griswald · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2056

I think that Roger makes a good point about this topic.

Any company would most likely want you to do the job lot - Chinese to English translation as well as the polishing. So if you really wanted a job like this you would really need to have a good foundation in Chinese. If they needed to employ a Chinese person to do the translation, and then a foreigner to polish this work, I doubt that they could justify the costs.

Finally, I am not so sure that these companies either are aware of this problem or even care. I guess that often the bosses can't recognize that there is a problem and assume that the local staff member is doing a good job.

vikdk · Joined: 25 Jun 2003 Posts: 1676

What businesses or companies are often looking for are �foreign experts�, who represent them at social functions, staff get-togethers or promotion drives � it�s a bit like playing the corporate pet monkey. You have to make a speech in English � and eat and drink, and smile � and they pay pretty good. I had a French friend doing this for firms working with French products � and he certainly wasn�t an expert in any of the things he was promoting � when he gave a speech in French the translator gave an entirely different speech in Chinese!!! You can get to meet people who want to hire you in trade fairs � if you have a Chinese front person who can introduce you, then finding this kind of work is easier. I know its not exactly big business work � but it pays a hell lot more than normal teaching jobs � and with an open mind should be fun � and could open other doors. For this job you can also just survive on your English.

laska · Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 293

Some people do actually do copy editing for multinational corporations. In my experience, people usually get this kind of work through word of mouth. For example, maybe they have taught English to the staff of a company's communications department. Then they get invited to proofread documents, newsletters and important emails. Perhaps sometimes they are paid by the word, sometimes they are paid a retainer fee based on a certain amount of work.

Amazingly, companies may actually regularly pay for you to proofread documents that were translated by a 'professional' PR agency. Incredible, but true. Draw your own conclusions.

What everyone else is saying in the previous posts is also true. Perhaps copy editing work is mainly only available in multinationals where there is an awareness of the importance of creating a more professional image, especially with respect to the organization's head office. Sometimes an expat manager is involved. So the work I described is the exception, not the rule. But I feel that there will be a growing demand. Having said that, I understand copy editing work is pretty boring... :-) Not really asked to advise on content so much, more on style and perhaps communication strategies at the micro level.

Angel46 · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 51 Location: Hangzhou

I would like to thank everyone for their input. Your responses are pretty much what I expected. It appears that the only way to obtain such "advisory" work is to develop amicable relationships with companies and present some examples to them before any business agreements can be entered into. Wish me luck!

Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

It's not just "examples" that you need to show them. They'll merely share those examples with the people already doing the work.

You must also demonstrate that the work you can provide has a value-added quality. The bottom line is always money. Can your work either make money or save money for a company? How? You must specifically demonstrate this. If you can't, there's no reason for them to pay you rather than somebody else.

bearcanada · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 312 Location: Calgary, Canada

Angel 46, this is a very curious topic. I had the same idea 4 or 5 years ago when I was importing products from companies or agents whose websites were in serious need of English improvement.

I made offers to quite a few of these people - with whom I was alredy doing business - and was rebuffed in every case. I even went so far as to rewrite a couple of website pages for a supplier to show him how much better his website would be. He used maybe 6 of my good words and changed it all back to the way it had been.

I could only conclude that these people believed their English was better than mine, or at least plenty good enough. I don't think they appreciated the importance of the hundreds of small spelling and grammar errors. I finally abandoned the effort.

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Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

One does not show companies or Web site owners how to rewrite their materials if such advice is unsolicited. This is highly unprofessional, and it will definitely not get you the job. Big duh.

bendan · Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 739 Location: North China

China Daily currently has an opening for a proofreader, though as someone said, it's pretty dull work. Some Chinese companies do use people for this purpose, in particular for technical writing, i.e. the instructions to go with products. Five star hotels are also pretty sensitive about their English, as are Internet companies like Alibaba.com.