lynnxa

but do the 'authorities' know this?


I didn't used to carry my passport until I was told off one day doing a translation at the Guardia


so I started carrying it



& promptly lost it

Fred James

Of course not - this is Spain after all!

Veleta

How did you get onto the translators list for the guardia? Is the list held by them or an external company? Are you an "official" translator or don't they bother with any officialdom here? Are you on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Do you get paid mega bucks when they call you in?

Sorry for all the questions.....I'd like to get involved in that here.

Veleta

lynnxa

I'm not on their list it was a favour - though I have done quite a lot of favours down there (don't get paid btw)

they didn't used to have an official translator there - but I saw a poster that they do now between certain hours

official translators get paid a fortune - someone on here has a wife who does that - cricketman I think?

Veleta

In the UK I used to work in a Police Station and I remember they had an official list of translators...for every language of course. Each time a foreigner got arrested, or was the victim of crime, they had to contact a translator from the list. Of course it could be anytime day or night. But the translators were paid huge amounts of money. It was something like 50 pounds an hour for "normal" hours, and then more like 75 pounds an hour for the "anti-social" hours. It's a good crack if you can get it. Their travelling time was also paid for. And a lot of the time they were in the police station they were just hanging around in waiting rooms. I could hang around in a waiting room for 75 pounds an hour!!!!

lynnxa

I have a sneaky suspicion that they are not paid for by the Guardia - here anyway

I think the 'victim' or whatever would have pay out of their own pocket

that would be good money indeed though

someone I know had to get some documents 'officially' translated

it was 75 euros per page - regardless of the number of words on the page!


I don't suppose there's work every day though...............

Veleta

No, in the UK it certainly wasn't a full time job. But it wasn't really job at all. People used to sign up and just considered it a bit of an "extra". They would do it alongside their regular jobs.

But it's nice to get phone call out of the blue every now and again to say "hey, fancy earning 300 quid for hardly doing anything?".