Is this wrong of me?

[Jorath Calar]

I have a bit of a problem... bear with me and I'll tell you...

This winter I have been helping these 2 women I went to university with, strangely they are in a course taught by an Ausrtalian Professor, who despite having lived and worked here for 10 years or so, has not learned any icelandic, teaches all her courses in english and demands all assigments and essays are handed in in english. The trouble is these 2 women are not good at english... just plain bad in fact. So at first when I agreed to help them(with the faculties agreement) I thougt I would just be translating their work from Icelandic to english, but now increasingly more often I find my self doing more and more of the whole work for them, usually because they have no idea what to do, it bothers me a lot, but some how I can't bring myself to tell them... I should mention they pay me for it, but I really don't care about that, despite it being pretty decent pay. I'm just worried about the integrity of the work... I mean I'm sure if the professor found out they would be in deep trouble.

So what can I do? I know if I quit they will simply be furious... and most likely fail the course.

[shadowhound]

I think that helping is fine up till the point where you are doing their work for them, I say just limit it to translating and if they fail then it is their own responsability.

[Bungleau]

First off, figure out what you want to have happen. I'm assuming that you want to step back to just translating without doing all their homework. If that's not the case, then skip the rest of this.

You could try pulling back. Explain that your schedule has gotten busier, and all you'll have time to do is to translate whatever they bring you. And then do that. You may go through a couple of rounds where they may miss an assignment or two, but it's back on them to deal with it, not you. Who knows... perhaps they'll hire someone else to do it for them.

They may also try to ask why you don't have time, and offer to help you with it. Be careful of that -- stick to "I don't have enough time" without much explanation, because every explanation is an opportunity for them to volunteer help to fix your "not enough time" problem. That will leave you worse off than you currently are.

Then again, if the pay is good, consider upping your hours...

Another option that just crossed my mind... really bungle the job. Do a really lousy job a couple of times, and they'll look for someone else. After all, they can't blame you when the professor asks why they didn't do what was required, can they? You're just the translator...

[Hivetyrant]

One question......
Are they good looking??? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

[Azred]

I would continue to help them were I in your position, but let the professor know.

How can this professor face any class--where the purpose is to learn new things--and not have learned Icelandic, especially when given the time span of 10 years? [img]graemlins/saywhat.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] Even given its relative difficulty, she should have become functionally literate in only 6 months and conversationally adept in about 2 or 3 years.

[Griefmaker]

Heh, speaking of professor's who should be learning new things--I am finishing my last semester of a computer engineering degree, and I have an instructor who refuses to teach any other processor besides the Motorola 68000. This processor, while cheap and able to show basic functionality of a microcomputer, is outdated and now officially obsolete. This guy should be teaching us something like an ARM 7 processor or something that is being used today. The problem is that he finally learned how to use the 68000 processor a few years ago after spending almost 10 years trying to figure it out. Needless to say, he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Fortunately, he is no longer using the Motorola 6800 series processors anymore (these are the ones found in the 8-bit Nintendos from the 80's) and it is also fortunate that he is the only bad professor that I have. All of the rest are excellent.

How can anyone in technology, especially a professor teaching computer engineering classes, not keep up to date with modern concepts and products? It is pretty pathetic!

Sorry about taking up everyone's time with my rant, but I do indeed feel better! Now I will not have to go one a wrathful rampage... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[RevRuby]

bungleau has some great ideas! i personally would speak with them directly and let them know it's not what you were hired to do, and you are uncomfortable continuing in the same fashion. the direct approach is sometimes the best.

[Vaskez]

Originally posted by Griefmaker: Heh, speaking of professor's who should be learning new things--I am finishing my last semester of a computer engineering degree, and I have an instructor who refuses to teach any other processor besides the Motorola 68000. This processor, while cheap and able to show basic functionality of a microcomputer, is outdated and now officially obsolete. This guy should be teaching us something like an ARM 7 processor or something that is being used today. The problem is that he finally learned how to use the 68000 processor a few years ago after spending almost 10 years trying to figure it out. Needless to say, he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Fortunately, he is no longer using the Motorola 6800 series processors anymore (these are the ones found in the 8-bit Nintendos from the 80's) and it is also fortunate that he is the only bad professor that I have. All of the rest are excellent. How can anyone in technology, especially a professor teaching computer engineering classes, not keep up to date with modern concepts and products? It is pretty pathetic! Sorry about taking up everyone's time with my rant, but I do indeed feel better! Now I will not have to go one a wrathful rampage... [img]smile.gif[/img]

I feel ya, man, I also did a computer engineering degree, and had some bad lecturers. But I know how you north americans like to call anyone a professor, so is it ACTUALLY a professor (i.e. head of a research group) or just a lecturer? I ask because, if it's just a lecturer, it's more excusable, but still bad that he can't learn something new, even for the benefit of his students. Some people seem to think that learning ends when you finish your degree, but really it's only the beginning. My dad always says to me that it's always your RATE of work/output/learning that matters not the amount of work you've done in the past. Even if you wrote THE book on some subject, if you don't keep up with new advances, then your fame and respect will soon fade.

As for Jorath's problem, well I say it sucks that you have to do the work for them, go back to translating, it's purely their fault if they're set to fail. However, I also don't think it's acceptable that the work is only accepted in English, since that's not the official language over there.

[johnny]

Ask not what you can do for them, but what they can do for you. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Jorath Calar]

Heh, my good man johnny, there is nothing they can do...except pay me [img]smile.gif[/img] both are married and about 20 years older than me... not that it's any kind of an issue... just totally irrelevant [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for the rest of you, you are right and give me some very good advice. I thank you for that.

I'm just horrible at confrontations, specially with older people... not sure why [img]smile.gif[/img]