Friday 25 July 2008

Sigma2 and its embarrasing level of English

SigmaDos (Sigma2) is a well-known Spanish polling company which is used by various media (eg, El Mundo) and other organisations.

Sigma 2 was commissioned by The Times to undertake an opinion poll just before the 2008 Spanish national elections. The poll results were published in both internet and paper formats of The Times two days before the elections; this generated huge expectation as the Spanish media are barred from publishing opinion polls in the five days leading up to the election.

I read the report with the results that very same day that was published and I couldn't believe the extremely poor level of English used. I couldn't help send the following email to Sigma2.

Embarrasing errors at the Sigma2 opinion poll report published in The Times (07/03/2008)

Dear Sir,

I have read the results of the opinion survey on the Spanish elections carried out by Sigma2 and published by The Times.
I have noted so many spelling mistakes and grammar errors in the English used at that report that it could be considered that the language used was Spanglish. This fact is being already mocked at in some internet blogs.

It might be that the use of Spanglish were exactly your intention in order to make the report readable by Spaniards, but I do not think this is the case as the word "majourity" (which is more similar to the French than to the Spanish) was repeatedly used.

I strongly advise you ensure that your deliverables are properly corrected for accuracy of the figures and clean writing.


I work my ass off every day to show those who know me that the Spanish are not only lazy party-goers who only think in sangria, beaches and siesta. But every day as well, I find new cases that shovel embarrasment on. Call me a pedant if you think so, but honestly their lack of professionalism and due care embarrased me as Spaniard. They are paid to be professional!!

Love and freedom.

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