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How Can I Be Polite at this Point?
So I'm doing a qualitative study in China on tuberculosis. We interviewed a few doctors, patients, and experts. My research team consists of a PhD and two masters students. They all claimed to have experience in this kind of research. So we go through the project and what I want from it. I write up a topic guide for the interviews, and I give them some advice for things to avoid, leading questions, making prejudgements, and the like.
I have them conduct the interviews, while I watch. My Chinese is not good enough to conduct these interviews myself, plus I don't know anything of the local dialect. The PhD performs most of the interviews. Long before this, I've already made hints that I think she is incompetent. It takes on average 20 minutes to explain anything to her. And even then, she still looks confused and defeated. Whenever she gave me information, it nearly always turned out to be flat wrong.
So I finally get the translation of the interviews. As she gives them to me, she says happily, "Please send us a copy of your report, when you publish it." I'm thinking, Oh? Is the data really that good?
No, it is not. It is the most amateur ridiculous piece of crap that I have ever encountered in my entire life. First, the translation is a nightmare: Incomplete sentences, words and phrases that contradict eachother, and some outright nonsense. But that's nothing compared to the interviews themselves. Apparently they forgot the in-depth part of the in-depth interviews. Some examples:
Q: You treat sick patients?
A: Yes
Q: Yes?
A: Yes
A: Some patients leave the hospital shouting and screaming at the top of their lungs.
Q: Where do you get your funding?
Q: How are the patients in your hospital?
A: They are sick. (Actually, I like the doctor who gave answers like this. He must have realized how absolutely retarded they were. Fortunately, another doctor, who also realized, was able to answer the questions that they didn't ask)
Q: What do you like most about being a doctor?
To make matters worse. I had to pay for all of this crap. Every stupid word transcribing, I paid for. Every mistranslation, I paid for. And now I need to do the whole process over again because they are ****ing retarded!
So I sent an email to have a meeting to discuss the translations next week. The PhD says that she is busy and could I email her the parts that I am trouble with. This is as if the whole thing isn't one giant fetid abortion! Still, I insisted that we meet. One of my masters students has left for the summer and the other will be on vacation that week. Good! The one who left permanently was the only one who spoke decent English, but her inability to tell that the interviews were a complete disaster makes her worthless. The other has the language skills of a cantelope, but at least he is helpful as a butler. Since the PhD is dumber than him, we will have another student come in who seems quite able to understand English.
For the meeting, there are several things I want to accomplish:
1. I don't want to pay a cent for this crap. Ok, I'll pay their travel costs and the "gifts" we gave to the interviewees. But I shouldn't have to pay for the crap transcriptions and translations. They didn't even follow my topic guide for the project!!!
2. I want to redo the interviews myself. This will mean that a competent translator be with me to translate everything live. Why they didn't want to do this in the first place, I don't know. Apparently, this is how all the other foreign students had it done. Although, from what I gathered, they did not work with any of the people I have worked with.
The issue is, how do I say all this without insulting her. The PhD pretty much says no to anything I say at first because she's too stupid to understand it. I always need a translator to talk with despite her claims to understand English. So, I have to somehow explain politely how bad the interviews were. Explaining anything to her is a challenge, let alone something that makes her look bad.
I have them conduct the interviews, while I watch. My Chinese is not good enough to conduct these interviews myself, plus I don't know anything of the local dialect. The PhD performs most of the interviews. Long before this, I've already made hints that I think she is incompetent. It takes on average 20 minutes to explain anything to her. And even then, she still looks confused and defeated. Whenever she gave me information, it nearly always turned out to be flat wrong.
So I finally get the translation of the interviews. As she gives them to me, she says happily, "Please send us a copy of your report, when you publish it." I'm thinking, Oh? Is the data really that good?
No, it is not. It is the most amateur ridiculous piece of crap that I have ever encountered in my entire life. First, the translation is a nightmare: Incomplete sentences, words and phrases that contradict eachother, and some outright nonsense. But that's nothing compared to the interviews themselves. Apparently they forgot the in-depth part of the in-depth interviews. Some examples:
Q: You treat sick patients?
A: Yes
Q: Yes?
A: Yes
A: Some patients leave the hospital shouting and screaming at the top of their lungs.
Q: Where do you get your funding?
Q: How are the patients in your hospital?
A: They are sick. (Actually, I like the doctor who gave answers like this. He must have realized how absolutely retarded they were. Fortunately, another doctor, who also realized, was able to answer the questions that they didn't ask)
Q: What do you like most about being a doctor?
To make matters worse. I had to pay for all of this crap. Every stupid word transcribing, I paid for. Every mistranslation, I paid for. And now I need to do the whole process over again because they are ****ing retarded!
So I sent an email to have a meeting to discuss the translations next week. The PhD says that she is busy and could I email her the parts that I am trouble with. This is as if the whole thing isn't one giant fetid abortion! Still, I insisted that we meet. One of my masters students has left for the summer and the other will be on vacation that week. Good! The one who left permanently was the only one who spoke decent English, but her inability to tell that the interviews were a complete disaster makes her worthless. The other has the language skills of a cantelope, but at least he is helpful as a butler. Since the PhD is dumber than him, we will have another student come in who seems quite able to understand English.
For the meeting, there are several things I want to accomplish:
1. I don't want to pay a cent for this crap. Ok, I'll pay their travel costs and the "gifts" we gave to the interviewees. But I shouldn't have to pay for the crap transcriptions and translations. They didn't even follow my topic guide for the project!!!
2. I want to redo the interviews myself. This will mean that a competent translator be with me to translate everything live. Why they didn't want to do this in the first place, I don't know. Apparently, this is how all the other foreign students had it done. Although, from what I gathered, they did not work with any of the people I have worked with.
The issue is, how do I say all this without insulting her. The PhD pretty much says no to anything I say at first because she's too stupid to understand it. I always need a translator to talk with despite her claims to understand English. So, I have to somehow explain politely how bad the interviews were. Explaining anything to her is a challenge, let alone something that makes her look bad.
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