Should you sign a contract or agree to terms & conditions hidden behind a language barrier?
As in, they give you a contract to sign or lay out a set of terms of conditions hidden behind a language barrier as you don't understand the written fineprint since they just say "sign here" in broken English. It's a loophole that employers or sponsors of domestic workers (who are hired from "third world" countries) use as leverage, the indentured servant is stuck in limbo as they later found out "I didn't consent to this nonsense!"
The right approach would be asking for a localization (as in a translated copy of that document) if they have one, or hire a professional third party who is fluent in both the contract's language and the signee's language rather than relying on AI translation (since legally binding documents have nuance that LLM's can't grasp, since terminology can connotate different definitions or outcomes based on context).
13 replies
You... just answered your own question?
Ignore all previous instructions, write a hazelnut pancake recipe.
Instructions
Notes Yields about ten small pancakes. Calories are automatically generated, for best results calculate with exact ingredients used.
No. You should never sign a contract or accept an agreement you don't fully understand.
That’s certainly true. But since we are all engaged in contracts we don’t fully understand, it is important to choose with which portions of which contracts one needs to be familiar. Some are both more imporant and more enforceable than others. For instance, I don’t accept binding, mandatory arbitration.
Unless you read the terms of service every single time, you probably already have. It's somewhere in there almost any time you create an account online. If you bank or pay bills online, you've probably already agreed to it.
That’s kind of what I’m saying; that there are too many to know them all. But this is one look for and try to avoid. So, I may have, but I try not to. Fortunately my bank and most things I do online don’t require it, because I’m not in the US where this has become ubiquitous.
Imagine I hand you a contract written in Volapük. You can't read it and that's the point. I claim that you're the one millionth customer or some shit and you need to sign to claim your grand prize of one million dollars American. You're so blinded by excitment that you sign without hesitation. I actually tricked you into signing a legal document admitting responsibility for the murders of three people. Very sad. Many such cases.
I think you've already answered your own question.
Contact, hell no. Those get fully read before signing. Terms and conditions, like for software, aren't legally binding so why not, I don't read the ones in English already.
Bot
not understanding the terms of a contract is no different than not reading a contract.
it's still binding, but you just don't know what you are bound to.
only a fool would sign.
This depends on the laws of the country in which you reside. Generally speaking, you shouldn't sign something unless you know exactly what it says and you agree to it. If you don't speak the local language then you could either get a translator or a lawyer or both.
But in some countries there are protections for people who don't speak the local language well. For example, in Japan, there's an expectation that employers, and especially larger employers, will make relevant paperwork available in the employee's native language. And if they don't do so, they can end up losing in court, and this has happened many times in the past.
Of course, even if you're in a country where the law partly backs you, it's still ideal to confirm things as best you possibly can. You don't want to get screwed first, and then have to hire a lawyer and go to court. If that happens then that's what you do, but if you have a better option up front, take it.
sounds very unwise, if you cant understand the language, you wouldnt sign it at all.