english to french qualifications
 

Hello
can anyone tell me of a company who is able to translate my English cv to French including changing the GCSE's and BTEC to the French equivalent.

Re: english to french qualifications
 

Any competent translator.

Re: english to french qualifications
 

That surprises me as I have not found and translator that says they specifically can change my GCSE's etc into BAC etc

Re: english to french qualifications
 

I'm not sure even God could do that, without the approval of the Chairman of the relevant Board of Examiners ;)

Re: english to french qualifications
 

You just stick your English GCSE's on the CV in French of course, your CV will be reduced to one page that is about as interesting as microwave noddles instructions "no offence intended" and you will need about 2000 copies to keep sending out to the same companies over and over and one day a manager will be holding your cv when he or she actually has a vacancy and if your even luckier you will be the first interviewee as that tends to be the person that gets the job....

Some folk like to see the worst photo you have of yourself on the CV as well...

Re: english to french qualifications
 

Yes it will. Whereas in the UK we tailor our CV to each job and try and make it interesting, in France they send the same bare bones CV every time. But then to accompany it you write a lettre de motivation tailored to that specific job, in the most OTT floweriest gushingest French you can come up with. I get asked to translate them into English sometimes and you just can't, UK recruiters would fall about laughing. You have to tone them right down and miss half of it out.

Re: english to french qualifications
 

I asked my online french tutor if she did letter translation once. She replied that she doesn't because the translator needs to speak fench with their mother tongue????????? There are so many translators where french isn't their first language so was more than a little confused with that one! Maybe she isn't such a great tutor after all?? Would explain my rubbish french!

Re: english to french qualifications
 

It's normal for translators to translate into their mother tongue, not out of it.
You can be near-bilingual and understand your second language perfectly, but you need to be a native speaker or totally bilingual to choose the best terminology and vocabulary to then translate that same message into the other language.
When I'm proofreading I can always tell when a translation has been done by a non-native non-bilingual speaker, there are tiny errors all over the place, plus it just doesn't sound quite English.

Re: english to french qualifications
 

Plus if you're not a native you don't always realise when something has an unfortunate double meaning. I'm working up to my favourite true joke again - the international conference a few years back, when a French speaker was holding Normandy up as an example to the world and said that what Europe needed was more 'sagesse normande', and the English interpreter (who was native English but just didn't have time to think, because you don't with simultaneous translation) came out with 'what Europe needs is more Norman Wisdom', and the other nationalities wondered why the English contingent suddenly burst out laughing.
:rofl:

Re: english to french qualifications
 

FOR THOSE WHO NEED TO KNOW.

After putting my question on facebook I found someone serious enough to tell me use the European equivalent of NARIC. web site NARIC - UK NARIC who have a French site which can be changed your qualifications.This is used by the European union to help businesses understand other countries qualifications.

Re: english to french qualifications
 

:goodpost:
If I couldn't get out of translating something from English to French, I used to get my OH to read it through (without seeing the English). Needless to say, it NEVER read right!
@beautiful32 - as suggested, keep the English terms with the French equivalent in brackets. No point in mentioning anything less than A-levels (Bac). From a Google search, a BTEC seems to be the equivalent of a Bac Professionel.
Hope this helps a little, but the lettre de motivation is almost more important than the C.V., as you really have to convince a potential employer why you're the only one possible for the job.

Re: english to french qualifications
 

Sorry beautiful32, we wandered off topic didn't we.
But, as said in the second post, any good translator will do their best to indicate what a qualification represents and suggest a close equivalent if there is one, although sometimes there isn't. And that's normally all that's needed.
But they have to put down the qualification you actually got, they can't say you got a BAC if you didn't.
Eg I often put something like
2006: BTS [Brevet de Technicien Supérieur - Higher vocational training certificate]

Re: english to french qualifications
 

:thumbsup:
I'm sure that the punchline would have gone well over the heads of many of the younger generation who may be reading this (and certainly 99% of French readers).
Norman Wisdom = A very funny man indeed.
Apologies to the OP for wavering off-topic. That's most unlike me.......:sneaky:

Re: english to french qualifications
 

beautiful32, thanks for coming back with that very useful link about naric.

I had a poke around on the links and I think that one of the most useful ones is this one:
Europass - Diploma Supplement

Re: english to french qualifications
 

Diploma supplements are indeed very useful documents, they are very comprehensive and also lengthy, usually well over 2000 words (expensive to have translated).

The certificate supplement looks useful too and particularly the fact that they're now available to download for all City & Guilds qualifications. Could be worth putting in a Sticky?