I am sorry to announce it to people, who liked my corrections, but I’ve decided to quit LingQ. This means, that I am not going to tutor here any longer.
I received a very hard writing submission from Reinhard. I took me really a lot of time to correct it. But still it was not natural. That’s why I decided to finish it later.
Being busy, I forget about it and then caught a cold.
As this writing had been already corrected (I was thinking about comments), LingQ staff send it to Reinhard.
When I asked to refund me with my points for correcting, I received the following e-mail:
"
Regarding the points, a direct complaint from Reinhard and no response from you for several days led me to believe that you would not be back to correct the writing. Unfortunately, because you didn’t finish correcting this writing Reinhard was unable to send it to another corrector and he was put in a very awkward situation.
You can ask Reinhard to resubmit this writing so that you can finish correcting it. However, no points will be given out for this correction as it was unacceptably late."
In fact, I still have not paid for my work in February (two or three weeks before the upgrade when auto payment was introduced), as I am too lazy to count them and decided too “gift” these points to LingQ.
And now they think that I am a cheater and my work does not deserve to be paid.
Rasana,pls do not quit. I am sitting by roadside in Italy. I pulled off road when - saw year post.
It took a long time to log in and prepare message on Blackberry. Let us talk.
I do not Know what happened here.
I will quit tutoring.
And I will quit LingQ as soon as I spend all my points. I’ve already signed up for Tom’s discussions up to February. Plus my recent 3000 points.
I would like to add, that
Russian language is very hard to write. An average number of mistakes is 1 error every 6-7 words. It is really big number of mistakes.
I always provide audio record. The only exceptions are last two Reinhard’s writings.
Only quite advanced students are brave enough to submit writings in Russian. It is easier for them to write, that’s why they submit 150-200 words. But it is still more than 20 corrections. And these errors are not trivial like “I wants to do…”
So, it takes really much time to correct.
And do you know the most disappointing thing that being busy with my work, I can’t suggest convenient time for discussions. That’s why people, who submit writings for me, usually sign up for discussions with other Russian tutors. So, that tutors can receive 375 points for 20 minutes of work, but I receive my 375 points for 1.5 hours.
Very fair.
Steve,
I am not going to quit LingQ, as I like discussions with Tom (I’ve already signed up for all his discussions up to February 2011). I just don’t want to do tutoring, as I am not going to work for nothing. In Russia we say “work for thank you”. But in thin case it even is not “work for thank you”, as LingQ staff just said “no points will be given out for this correction as it was unacceptably late”. It is work for nothing. I am not a slave, I want my work to be paid.
Sometimes a piece of writing is not simply in need of correction, it is in need of recomposition. When that happens, it is better to decline the work, since it would take an unreasonably long time to recompose and correct.
Charles,
So, you think that if I did not declined it, corrected the major part of it, decided to brush it up later, forgot, and finally caught a cold, I don’t deserve to be paid? The problem is that I spent a lot of time doing my best correcting this writing and after all they said that it was unacceptably late and don’t pay for my work at all.
Btw, Reinhard asked me if I had been paid for this correction.
I suppose, it means that he does not have complains about my corrections and thinks that I deserve to be paid for it.
It would be nice if one always got paid for the work that one does. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. It was unfortunate that you ‘caught a cold’. But when work is taken on, under what is effectively a contract, and the work is submitted late, it is very unusual to get paid, no matter how genuine and/or reasonable, the excuse. Traders often take advantage of contracts to gain an advantage, even though it is morally, dubious practice.
Reinhard is not the only LingQer in need of conversations and/or writing corrections, so you can be sanguine to the extent that you may now be in a better position to make better use of LingQ, so that you are more Likely to get paid, in the future. LingQ gives experience in languages, and life. Or, as Charlie Munger–Warren Buffet’s business partner–told his fellow Americans (Youtube): Suck it in, and cope.
In the case of yourself and Reinhard, Reinhard could book a 30-minute conversation, not turn up for it, and you could claim the points, after you submit a short report. For example: That was a good conversation. Keep up the good work. So LingQ does provide a remedy, for those who want to cooperate.
Your last advice is not appropriate; It does not work. At the point when you book a conversation, a certain points are subtracted from your points immediately.
Charles,
and let for an experiment you try to check here so that’s a job. Most of the written works that I checked, were such. What’s it like to check what translated by Google as well? More please note that in English it translates much better than in Russian, with all its plural nouns and declinations.
And such nonsense on two or three hundred words. What is it?
Fun, I’ll tell you below average.
original text:
Чарльз,
а давай для эксперимента Вы попробуете проверить вот такую вот работу. Большинство письменных работ, что я проверяла, были именно такими. Каково это проверять то, что переведено гуглом, а? Ещё учтите, пожалуйста, что на английский он переводит гораздо лучше, чем на русский со всеми его падежами и склонениями.
И такой ахинеи на двести-триста слов. Каково это?
Удовольствие, скажу Вам, ниже среднего.
It’s annoying situation, one that probably could have been remedied by either of you, both lingq regulars, if one of you just got in contact with the other to explain the situation. Hopefully that’s an idea for next time.
Otherwise, I’m sure lingq will do something for you, I’m sure that they’ll contact you away from the forum, I don’t study Russian, yet, but losing you would be terrible for lingq, Russian will start to like Korean!!!, it may be better just to pull back for awhile especially after this situation. I would sit tight, also I doubt Steve will let really go away after all Italy isn’t that far away from Russia!!!
@Charles
I don’t know how much experience you’ve had with the slavic side of things, but I can assure “catching a cold” has a very different meaning to anglo/american. When my wife says she’s caught a cold, it means that she’s visiting a doctor and is going to fight it:vitamin C, more tea than normal (btw I would put a Pole’s tea drinking up against a Brit’s any day), medicine and a constant week long worry. Where to you and me, we might buy a box of tissues and stay warm… This can also be contrasted against the French “caught a cold” which is to take a week off of work at 80% pay and then go to a riot about the government raising the retiring age…
You are correct. A cost will be incurred by the people that use LingQ, not LingQ which always takes a share of the transactions. This is akin to the post office, or a package delivery company, neither of which can be held liable for the complaints of customers that are in dispute over what they sent, to each other. This can be compared to the Italian government that wants to control the Internet, via the ISPs because ISPs transfer the content that Italians receive, via the ISP’s network. Italy v. Youtube and Google.
Google Translate will not translate many languages, to any reasonable degree of accuracy. It is hopeless at German into English and English into German. It can convey a usable sense of the meaning of the text, but it would be useless for using as a letter, etc. So, by way of your Russian example: I can feel your pain And, as I pointed out in my first post, corrections can quickly become a recomposition.
And, as I pointed out in my first post, corrections can quickly become a recomposition.