South African English Language Specialist 146 views

Welocalize is looking for a South African English Language Specialist

Description:

Welocalize is looking for Creative Language Specialists with outstanding writing skills and creative minds to participate in a project that will help shape the future of chatbot technology in many languages. Imagine first that you have some problem that you want to solve (maybe with your insurance, or with a retailer, or with an airline, etc). You call the company’s customer support telephone line to get help and a computer chatbot answers. Here is where your work on this project would begin.

Your job will be to imagine a particular customer support situation and then write up examples of things you (and people you know) might say on the phone. We call these statements “utterances”. For example, we may ask you to imagine that you want to change your flight for a trip you have already schedule. We may also ask you to include a date in your utterance. You would then write up several different things you or someone might say in that situation. Each one of the utterances you write would need to be different, using different kinds of words, different styles. You need to be highly creative and write variations of each sentence in a way that uses as many new words as possible and use a completely different sentence structure. And you need to be fast! Sentences do not need to be long. They need to be unique and applicable to the situation. Realism is critical. When you write an utterance, we want you to think about the kinds of references someone from your country would make. Specific companies, specific government entities, specific local currency, specific local slang, specific local brand names.

Ideal candidates should have the mindset of a playwright. You are imagining a setting, a place, a mindset. Then, you are imagining what a character in a play would say. Maybe you start with yourself, and then imagine what your grandmother would say, and then what your teenage cousin would say.

Skills:

• The specific job task will be to create one sheet of utterances per task. On the sheet there will be several prompts (scenarios) and the creator will create several variants for expressing an utterance that relates to the prompt. All specific rules regarding spelling, grammar, punctuation, glossary term usage, and other specialized conventions (orientation will be provided) MUST be followed. If not, the creator will be provided with feedback and ask to edit their sheet of utterances until it complies with our quality standards.
• Native-level fluency in target language (written and spoken). Great spelling and grammar are required. Preferred candidates will also be familiar with the way the target language is used by a wide range of speakers from ages 15-70, primarily from urban and sub-urban settings.
• Advanced English comprehension (spoken and written); able to understand training materials, instructions and creative writing prompts written in English.
• Ability to follow nuanced linguistic instructions (e.g. Do not use numerals in your writing. Write out all numbers. Do not use “1”. Do use “one”).
• Ability to communicate questions quickly and succinctly in English.
• Ability to hit demanding deadlines by learning how to work in efficient ways.
• Rich vocabulary, knowledge of local-market conditions, knowledge of local-market slang.
• Extensive knowledge in local-market insurance, financial and health care systems (work experience in these sectors is not necessary, but knowledge as a consumer of these systems is critical).
• Ability to analyse writing prompts (scenarios) and adapt them to local cultural reality.
• Efficient online research skills.
• University degree.

Preferred:

Documented work experience as a writer (journalism, creative writing, preferred).

Project Details:

Duration- 17-18 weeks

(Creators will receive project orientation & training in January 2021 (11 hours approximately). Orientation will include completion of some online modules, some video conference calls, and doing some sample tasks with direct personalized feedback. Production work will begin in January 2021 and will proceed every week until the end of May 2021. Creators will have opportunities to accept tasks that take approximately 10-25 hours per week, with some opportunity for additional tasks/hours for high performers.)

Orientation Payment:

There will be an initial period of orientation where staff will be asked to complete some online orientation tasks, attend a couple of video conferences and successfully complete work on two production pilot tasks. After all of these have been completed successfully, the worker will receive a lump sum payment of USD 290 for the effort. If online orientation tasks are not completed successfully, if the worker does not attend meetings or if the worker does not produce the two production files successfully (compliant with all guidelines that will have been explained and practiced during orientation), no payment will be issued for the orientation period.

Interested candidates please apply.