Or she wouldn’t have gone to the UK to practise as a doctor😀 it is the native English speakers whose grasp of foreign languages interested me.
We have lots of eg Romanian and Moroccan doctors in France who speak excellent French - and their native language(s) but not necessarily excellent English, why should they?
In areas where there are specific needs there are support organisations that help with translating, eg for asylum seekers and refugees. And quite a few immigrant communities will sort that out for themselves, so locally we have a big turkish population and the young adults will hand hold older (often women) whose French is poor. So maybe in dense bits of immigrant brit-land there is the same?
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For visitors, a good travel insurance policy would cover translation/interpretation services.
My view is that residents who don’t speak French need to get a strategy in place, otherwise they’re creating a problem for doctors that no doctor should be landed with. Doesn’t matter what the strategy is - a French speaking friend they can rely on, an interpreter they’ve made an arrangement with, whatever. Of course a doctor will always do whatever they can in whatever situation they find themselves in, but they won’t always feel happy about it, and they shouldn’t be put in that position when it could have been avoided. It’s about personal responsibility.
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quite right… and also, in those areas where Brits are not thick on the ground… help is always at hand
and it does help if Brits have a decent dictionary… in paper form… with which they can produce an outline of problem etc etc.
Notaries have always insisted that buyers and sellers understand exactly what they are signing during house sales and that has often resulted in a translator/interpreter being present. It would seem prudent to accept that the same safeguards are taken for medical situations.
I spend a fair bit of time helping Persian and Arabic speakers who don’t read French though they may speak it a bit or even quite well, particularly for admin stuff because they don’t necessarily get the nuances of it.
… and what shouldn’t be forgotten is that - enshrined in the French Constitution of the 5th Republique - the language of France is French with the supposed expectation that if you want to deal with French officialdom in all it’s guises, you are best placed doing this in French.
I’m not a confident French speaker but have found that by at least trying to communicate in French, a greater tolerance is encountered.
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A trivial example - I’m a French to English translator. My French is good but it’s not my native language. I can’t count the number of times Brits ask me to translate from English to French. I could probably do a pretty good job, and sometimes I do as a favour without payment, but I will not do it professionally because I couldn’t say with 100% confidence, This translation is up to standard.
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I taught and translated for a number of years, as I think you know, Anna, and I did exactly the same, after all it’s a translator’s golden rule - only ever translate into your mother tongue, unfortunately too many don’t abide by it. I spent a lot of time proof reading terrible translations obviously done by non-natives. Their language level was probably OK for everyday situations but not for accurate translations and I think the same applies for doctors talking about medical matters. And after all, if you’re in France everything’s in French, the constitution stipulates that it must be…!
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Huh! I have just paid for a set of documents to be translated from english to french as need to have them done by a certified translator. Just got the work back and it’s pretty rubbish. Missing nuances, and lots of typos. Plus scrappy formatting. We could have done a better job ourselves apart from not having the stamp. And the person is refusing to send a hard copy saying I don’t need it, which is driving me nuts as I want to be able to rescan the documents in the right order and with the pages straight.
So you obviously have higher standards and scruples than others. I feel ripped off.
A good maxim for written documents but surely impossible for someone acting as a face to face interpreter (sorry, I think I used translator where I meant interpreter above).
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If you have a PDF and want the pages straightening and re-ordering and there isn’t anything confidential DM me and I’ll see what I can do
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I wouldn’t worry about the nuances, unless they actually matter. If it’s stamped, it’ll be accepted.
But you do need to check translators out, not just go for the cheapest quote. One useful check is to see if they’re members of a professional organisations - for instance the translators’ union I’m a member of, vets applicants before accepting them.
Though really, a court-approved translator should be OK.
He was court approved by the court I’m heading to… and no doubt they will accept them but it offends me! For my German nationality application I used quite a few other translators who were, without exception, great. And similar price.
@anon88169868 Many thanks, but I have the bit between my teeth and have not given upon getting them yet…
No worries - if you can’t get anything out of them let me know.
However, assuming you got a wonky PDF, it took effort to print the document and scan it, rather than just produce a PDF directly from the electronic copy which I am sure was the original document - one might come to the conclusion that they don’t want to to have a copy which is amenable to further processing (which ?? could be a requirement if it is “official” in any way).
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All I want is a hard copy! 
. I’m not sure if you can find tippex now even if I did want to alter it. I just don’t want to rescan a scan… if I’m sending in a dossier I want it to look professional - especially when I’ve spend 450€ on the translations.
I must admit if they have printed it off and stuck it through a scanner you’d think it would be minimal extra work to stick it in the post for you.
The offer to tidy any electronic copy (if I can) remains open.
How many millions of pages am I letting myself in for? 
I assume you’re not serious but… you cannot alter a document after it’s been stamped by a traductrice assermentée. That would be sanctionnable.
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Seems reasonable, I guess if it is a PDF it will be locked to (maybe) only allow printing.