Is ALS assigning jobs to anyone listing languages in their database?
This month I had an automated job offer from the ALS database. Yes, I confess, my details are still there as, I assume, are those of Jajo the Rabbit. The job was Greek-English interpreting at Southampton Combined Court. The case was described as a 'family_case_ involving_ children' . The name of the person who requires the interpreter was disclosed. It seems that all I would have to do is click a button that says 'Accept job offer' and turn up, if I had no morals at all, that is.
There are two problems: firstly, I am not an interpreter; secondly I have no Modern Greek qualification at all. I do list Greek as one of my languages but my level, using the ALS self-assessment classification, is given as 'D-Limited'. I do have a degree in Classical Greek, with Latin, but I don't mention that in their database. It is just possible that the person requiring an interpreter is very very old indeed, or is citing Euripides in support of his/her case. If that's true, ALS has done well to track me down. It's a shame I was fully booked but maybe Jajo was free?
It was the second time that ALS offerred me interpreting work despite knowing that all my qualifications are for translating and not interpreting. The first time, the offer came by phone and I'm afraid I didn't bother asking which language they wanted. I just assumed that the individual making the call didn't know the difference between a translator and an interpreter: in other words, it was a human error. As the second offer came through their automated system, it would seem to prove that they are willing to assign work to people who have declared that their knowledge of the language in question is limited.
