# Looking to volunteer and need help with translation



## njr3307 (Aug 26, 2014)

Hi,

I'm trying to find a volunteer opportunity in the Netherlands as part of a broader fellowship project. I'd like to volunteer at a hospice, a hospital, or assisted living center. Do any of you have suggestions about who or what organization I could contact?

Also I don't yet know how to speak Dutch, but if I found a place to volunteer I would start teaching myself and take some lessons as well. I need help translating my email into Dutch. Could anyone help me translate it or point me to somewhere I could get help with translating it?

Here it is:

"Hello,
I am a United States university student and am trying to put together a fellowship project for after I graduate. As part of the project I'd like to spend a month or two volunteering at _______. From what I've read online, ______ seems like a great place and a fantastic learning experience. Do you ever accept volunteers? Unfortunately, I don't know Dutch at this point, but if I was able to volunteer, I would work hard to learn as quickly as I can.
Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.
All the best,
-______"

Thanks in advance for the help!!


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## NativeDutchSpeaker (Sep 27, 2014)

Hi njr3307,

You can find volunteer opportunities at translate google com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww vrijwilligerswerk nl%2F%3Fcontent%3D%2F3%2FZoek_vrijwilligerswerk&edit-text=&act=url (it's a Dutch website, but you can use Google Translate). I've removed the dots in the link because I can't post links in my first post.

Google Translate gives the following translation:

Hallo, 
Ik ben een Amerikaanse student aan de universiteit en ik probeer om samen een gemeenschap project voor na mijn afstuderen te zetten. Als onderdeel van het project wil ik een maand of twee vrijwilligerswerk besteden aan _______. Van wat ik online heb gelezen, ______ lijkt een geweldige plek en een fantastische leerervaring. Heeft u ooit vrijwilligers accepteren? Helaas weet ik niet Nederlands op dit punt, maar als ik in staat was om vrijwilligerswerk te doen, zou ik hard werken om zo snel als ik kan leren. 
Bedankt voor uw tijd en ik hoop snel van u te horen. 
All the best, 
-______

I would change that to the following text:


Beste ___,

Ik studeer aan een universiteit in de Verenigde Staten en ik probeer een (fellowship) project op te zetten voor als ik afgestudeerd ben. Als onderdeel van dat project wil ik graag één of twee maanden vrijwilligerswerk doen bij ___. 

Gebaseerd op wat ik online gelezen heb denk ik dat ___ een fantastisch bedrijf is om kennis en ervaring bij op te doen. Is het voor mij mogelijk om bij jullie vrijwilligerswerk te doen?

Helaas beheers ik op dit moment de Nederlandse taal niet goed. Ik heb hulp gekregen bij het opstellen van deze tekst. Als vrijwilliger zou ik wel hard werken om zowel de taal als taken zo snel mogelijk te leren begrijpen. 

Bedankt voor het lezen van dit bericht, ik hoop snel iets van u te vernemen.

Met vriendelijke groet,

___


Why is my translation different?
Google Translate isn't perfect (it's good though). Hallo is actually a better translation of Hello, but I recommend Dear/Beste (hi = hoi in Dutch by the way). The first three lines are quite good, someone might not even notice that you don't normally speak Dutch if you use those lines (they might think you're a little bit dyslexic or that you've written the text too quickly). The second part of the Google Translate translation is worse, mostly because the grammar is wrong. I've also changed a bit of the content because we use different expressions in Dutch and because I thought some small improvements were possible. 

You can check what I've written by translating it back to English with Google Translate. The first ___ is their name (preferably the given and family name of the person you're contacting, but the name of the organization or the family name with a honorific in front of it is also possible; Ms = mevrouw; Mr = meneer). The second and third ___ are the name of the organization. The last ___ is your own name (given and family name and you could also mention contact information). "Fellowship project" is a difficult part to translate, but easy part to understand for people from the Netherlands (in combination with the rest of the text). Fellowship can be translated as "beurs", but that might confuse things. Project is also a Dutch word, but it's pronounced differently (the "pro" part is pronounced as pro and the "je" part is pronounced a bit like meh: jeh).

You're welcome,

Rick


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## Gioppino (Aug 25, 2012)

The problem with volunteering here is that the Dutch employers already have tons of local graduates willing to work for free through stages and internships and they might not need foreign volunteers, regardless of their skills and good intentions.


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