Re: When You Hear The Heavy Accent & The Poor Phone Connection... HANG UP!! ____ ll4hP7RBx1u

[Rob Reedijk]

In rec.audio.pro wrote:
> When You Hear The Heavy Accent & The Poor Phone Connection... HANG UP!!
> -
> I think you must know what I’m talking about. Together, a heavy foreign accent,
> coupled with a lousy phone connection can only mean one thing... An outsourced
> operation, in a place like India, China, The Philippines, etc.;

Or Alabama!

Sometimes I am trying to book a hotel here in Canada, I get some person with
a thick Southern US accent.

But I never assume that she (or he) is a Southern-fried backwater cross-eyed
slack-jawed swamp yokel. Just doing their job. And I try not to let it
bother me that some Canadian hotel has outsourced their phone-operation
to the US.

Rob R.

[Eric K. Weber]

You should also be aware that many US states are putting call centers in
their prisons.... not exactly the people I feel good about giving my
credit card numbers to.

The problem with foreign support such as India is not an ethnic problem
it's, their low wages give them a different business concept, they will talk
all day before giving up any hardware....

Rgds:
Eric


"Rob Reedijk" > wrote in message
...
> In rec.audio.pro wrote:
> > When You Hear The Heavy Accent & The Poor Phone Connection... HANG UP!!
> > -
> > I think you must know what I'm talking about. Together, a heavy
foreign accent,
> > coupled with a lousy phone connection can only mean one thing... An
outsourced
> > operation, in a place like India, China, The Philippines, etc.;
>
> Or Alabama!
>
> Sometimes I am trying to book a hotel here in Canada, I get some person
with
> a thick Southern US accent.
>
> But I never assume that she (or he) is a Southern-fried backwater
cross-eyed
> slack-jawed swamp yokel. Just doing their job. And I try not to let it
> bother me that some Canadian hotel has outsourced their phone-operation
> to the US.
>
> Rob R.

[Glenn Dowdy]

"Rob Reedijk" > wrote in message
...
> In rec.audio.pro wrote:
> > When You Hear The Heavy Accent & The Poor Phone Connection... HANG UP!!
> > -
> > I think you must know what I'm talking about. Together, a heavy
foreign accent,
> > coupled with a lousy phone connection can only mean one thing... An
outsourced
> > operation, in a place like India, China, The Philippines, etc.;
>
> Or Alabama!
>
We used to joke "all over the United States, and in some parts of
Alabama...". When I was at the University, a friend from Alma, Alabama
(seriously backwoods) started dating a coed from Virginia, alledgedly a
southern state. She went to visit his home for the weekend and found that
she had to find ways to not be left alone in a room with his brothers, as
she could not understand them when they spoke to her.

One concern we have with overseas customer support would be the inability of
an Alabaman to converse with someone in Bangalore, both of whom are speaking
English.

It took several weeks of conversations for me to get fluent in understanding
Indian English. After that, no problem.

Glenn D.

[slumpy]

Voicing an opinion as worthless as a wino at a wedding, Glenn Dowdy
postulated...

> "Rob Reedijk" > wrote in message
> ...
>> In rec.audio.pro wrote:
>>> When You Hear The Heavy Accent & The Poor Phone Connection... HANG
>>> UP!! -
>>> I think you must know what I'm talking about. Together, a heavy
>>> foreign accent, coupled with a lousy phone connection can only mean
>>> one thing... An outsourced operation, in a place like India, China,
>>> The Philippines, etc.;
>>
>> Or Alabama!
>>
> We used to joke "all over the United States, and in some parts of
> Alabama...". When I was at the University, a friend from Alma, Alabama
> (seriously backwoods) started dating a coed from Virginia, alledgedly
> a southern state. She went to visit his home for the weekend and
> found that she had to find ways to not be left alone in a room with
> his brothers, as she could not understand them when they spoke to her.
>
> One concern we have with overseas customer support would be the
> inability of an Alabaman to converse with someone in Bangalore, both
> of whom are speaking English.
>
> It took several weeks of conversations for me to get fluent in
> understanding Indian English. After that, no problem.
>
> Glenn D.

Can you sing "Goodness Gracious Me" by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren ?
--
slumpy
no more
no less
just me

[Eric K. Weber]

If you want to have fun with accents in country's who claim to speak English
try Nigeria.... The ship I was on a few years back made all our entry
communications to the port of Lagos in Greek.... we could not understand
their English.... when we got to the part about registry USA and all crew US
citizens and they didn't believe us..

Rgds:
Eric

"Glenn Dowdy" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Rob Reedijk" > wrote in message
> ...
> > In rec.audio.pro wrote:
> > > When You Hear The Heavy Accent & The Poor Phone Connection... HANG
UP!!
> > > -
> > > I think you must know what I'm talking about. Together, a heavy
> foreign accent,
> > > coupled with a lousy phone connection can only mean one thing... An
> outsourced
> > > operation, in a place like India, China, The Philippines, etc.;
> >
> > Or Alabama!
> >
> We used to joke "all over the United States, and in some parts of
> Alabama...". When I was at the University, a friend from Alma, Alabama
> (seriously backwoods) started dating a coed from Virginia, alledgedly a
> southern state. She went to visit his home for the weekend and found that
> she had to find ways to not be left alone in a room with his brothers, as
> she could not understand them when they spoke to her.
>
> One concern we have with overseas customer support would be the inability
of
> an Alabaman to converse with someone in Bangalore, both of whom are
speaking
> English.
>
> It took several weeks of conversations for me to get fluent in
understanding
> Indian English. After that, no problem.
>
> Glenn D.
>
>

[Pooh Bear]

"Eric K. Weber" wrote:

< snip >

> The problem with foreign support such as India is not an ethnic problem

Hmmmm - I could spend a long time talking about that, having spent quite some
time there !
It's actually cultural rather than ethnic. It's *very* important to an Indian
that they are never wrong. Therefore it must be *you* who is wrong ! They manage
to infer this very politely though since they hate to offend !

>
> it's, their low wages give them a different business concept, they will talk
> all day before giving up any hardware....

Like my colleague who probably spoke to them for a good 1/2 hour before
incorrectly having a mobo problem 'diagnosed'.

Graham

[Carlos Alden]

in article , Eric K. Weber at
wrote on 3/30/04 12:21 PM:

> If you want to have fun with accents in country's who claim to speak English
> try Nigeria.... The ship I was on a few years back made all our entry
> communications to the port of Lagos in Greek.... we could not understand
> their English.... when we got to the part about registry USA and all crew US
> citizens and they didn't believe us..
>
> Rgds:
> Eric


Years ago I was living in China with my wife teaching English. We dropped
by our favorite restaurant while in Shanghai on a trip there. It was quite
crowded and they placed us at a table with a couple of other foreigners -
two very ruddy and large bearded sailors in full uniform. These guys were
pleasantly drunk and friendly, but we couldn't understand a word they said,
but intuited it was some Northern European language. Dutch? High German?
Some odd form of Danish? After about 20 minutes I finally noticed the
emblem on their hat, which noted "H.M.S." I asked them where they were
from, and finally got it out of them that they were from New Zealand and
were speaking English! It was the beer, and the fact that we probably
hadn't heard English spoken in a month that threw us off. These guys were
fresh off the Sheep stations and were the New Zealand equivalent of a thick
southern Mississippi twang, or maybe a mouthful of Brooklyn marbles.

Carlos

[Ricky W. Hunt]

"Carlos Alden" > wrote in message
...
> were speaking English! It was the beer, and the fact that we probably
> hadn't heard English spoken in a month that threw us off.

We lose our ability to speak and recognize even our native language pretty
fast if we don't use it every day. I've heard of people picked up from
deserted islands who talked almost like "deaf" people do (that "mumble" that
you can "almost" make out what they are saying). I had a girlfriend who's
mother was born and raised in Japan but lives here (US), has Japanese
friends here (who she talks to in Japanese almost everyday), but has trouble
speaking to her relatives in Japan. The Japanese relatives tell her she as
an "accent" they can't understand. Plus language, such as slang, vernacular,
tech-speak, etc., changes so fast nowadays if you're away from a language a
little while, you're not familiar with half the new words when you get back
to it.

[slumpy]

Voicing an opinion as worthless as a wino at a wedding, El Evans MMDeuce
postulated...

>> We lose our ability to speak and recognize even our native language
>> pretty fast if we don't use it every day. I've heard of people
>> picked up from deserted islands who talked almost like "deaf" people
>> do (that "mumble" that you can "almost" make out what they are
>> saying). I had a girlfriend who's mother was born and raised in
>> Japan but lives here (US), has Japanese friends here (who she talks
>> to in Japanese almost everyday), but has trouble speaking to her
>> relatives in Japan. The Japanese relatives tell her she as an
>> "accent" they can't understand.
>
> It comes back pretty quickly, and it takes years to get more than a a
> little awkward at first.
>
> Plus language, such as slang, vernacular,
>> tech-speak, etc., changes so fast nowadays if you're away from a
>> language a little while, you're not familiar with half the new words
>> when you get back to it.
>
> Funny how I can watch a 1950s or 1960s movie and never miss a beat
> usually. If MM or Jayne or Sharon Tate could be "brought back to life"
> today they'd have _no_ problem communicating. Even people who died at
> the turn of the century would be comprehensible to any normal person.
> The King James Bible dating from the early 1600s is even mostly
> comprehensible today. You have to go back to the time of Chaucer for
> language drift to pose serious problems to an average person.

Or listen to rap music.
--
slumpy
no more
no less
just me

[slumpy]

Voicing an opinion as worthless as a wino at a wedding, Carlos Alden
postulated...

> in article , Eric K. Weber at
> wrote on 3/30/04 12:21 PM:
>
>> If you want to have fun with accents in country's who claim to speak
>> English try Nigeria.... The ship I was on a few years back made
>> all our entry communications to the port of Lagos in Greek.... we
>> could not understand their English.... when we got to the part about
>> registry USA and all crew US citizens and they didn't believe us..
>>
>> Rgds:
>> Eric
>
>
> Years ago I was living in China with my wife teaching English. We
> dropped by our favorite restaurant while in Shanghai on a trip there.
> It was quite crowded and they placed us at a table with a couple of
> other foreigners - two very ruddy and large bearded sailors in full
> uniform. These guys were pleasantly drunk and friendly, but we
> couldn't understand a word they said, but intuited it was some
> Northern European language. Dutch? High German? Some odd form of
> Danish? After about 20 minutes I finally noticed the emblem on their
> hat, which noted "H.M.S." I asked them where they were from, and
> finally got it out of them that they were from New Zealand and were
> speaking English! It was the beer, and the fact that we probably
> hadn't heard English spoken in a month that threw us off. These guys
> were fresh off the Sheep stations and were the New Zealand equivalent
> of a thick southern Mississippi twang, or maybe a mouthful of
> Brooklyn marbles.
>
> Carlos

I just got back from a mad dash to Scotland, where they speak English.
Unfortunately en route one must pass through Geordieland, where they talk
total gibberish.
--
slumpy
no more
no less
just me

[Carlos Alden]

in article , slumpy at
wrote on 4/1/04 9:09 AM:

> I just got back from a mad dash to Scotland, where they speak English.
> Unfortunately en route one must pass through Geordieland, where they talk
> total gibberish.
> --
> slumpy
> no more
> no less
> just me

You ought to read Bill Bryson's book about wandering around England. He is
completely flummoxed by the Glaswegians supposed English. Hilarious.

Carlos

[Rob Reedijk]

In rec.audio.pro Carlos Alden > wrote:

> You ought to read Bill Bryson's book about wandering around England. He is
> completely flummoxed by the Glaswegians supposed English. Hilarious.

I can speak enough Dutch to be able to get around Holland---but that
doesn't include Zealand. I can't understand a word.

But I think the whole world is like that. Even here in Canada. Sometimes
the Newfoundland accent can be pretty strong. And then there's Quebec.
It sounds a lot more like French than English when they speak.

Rob R.

[Bruce J. Richman]

Rob Reedijk wrote:


>In rec.audio.pro Carlos Alden > wrote:
>
>> You ought to read Bill Bryson's book about wandering around England. He is
>> completely flummoxed by the Glaswegians supposed English. Hilarious.
>
>I can speak enough Dutch to be able to get around Holland---but that
>doesn't include Zealand. I can't understand a word.
>
>But I think the whole world is like that. Even here in Canada. Sometimes
>the Newfoundland accent can be pretty strong. And then there's Quebec.
>It sounds a lot more like French than English when they speak.
>
>Rob R.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

One of my best friends is originally from Toronoto. And of course, I wince
when he says something like "tubes and vinyl are the way to go, eh!!" ** Or
when he says something like "those that rant and rave about analogue playback
equipment are just upset that they've been left oooooot! (out) **


Obligatory audio references to help keep RAO an audio newsgroup.

Now playing:

Tchaikovsky - Capriccio Italien - on a Mercury Living Presence LP SR 90054

Up Next - Various Artists - Woodstock (soundtrack album) - Cotillion SD 3-500

and then - Joan Baez - In Concert - Vanguard SD 2122



Bruce J. Richman

[William Sommerwerck]

> I just got back from a mad dash to Scotland, where
> they speak English. Unfortunately en route one must
> pass through Geordieland, where they talk total gibberish.

Why criticize the Scots for their "poor" English, when the language was
unwillingly forced on them?

[Pooh Bear]

Rob Reedijk wrote:

> In rec.audio.pro Carlos Alden > wrote:
>
> > You ought to read Bill Bryson's book about wandering around England. He is
> > completely flummoxed by the Glaswegians supposed English. Hilarious.
>
> I can speak enough Dutch to be able to get around Holland---but that
> doesn't include Zealand. I can't understand a word.
>
> But I think the whole world is like that. Even here in Canada. Sometimes
> the Newfoundland accent can be pretty strong. And then there's Quebec.
> It sounds a lot more like French than English when they speak.

I believe their idea of French puzzles the French too !

Graham

[Ralph & Diane Barone]

In article >,
Pooh Bear > wrote:

>Rob Reedijk wrote:
>
>> In rec.audio.pro Carlos Alden > wrote:
>>
>> > You ought to read Bill Bryson's book about wandering around England. He is
>> > completely flummoxed by the Glaswegians supposed English. Hilarious.
>>
>> I can speak enough Dutch to be able to get around Holland---but that
>> doesn't include Zealand. I can't understand a word.
>>
>> But I think the whole world is like that. Even here in Canada. Sometimes
>> the Newfoundland accent can be pretty strong. And then there's Quebec.
>> It sounds a lot more like French than English when they speak.
>
>I believe their idea of French puzzles the French too !
>
>Graham

I can attest to that. You can't believe how angry you can make a Quebecer
by listening to him talk and then saying "That's not French..."

[slumpy]

Voicing an opinion as worthless as a wino at a wedding, William Sommerwerck
postulated...

>> I just got back from a mad dash to Scotland, where
>> they speak English. Unfortunately en route one must
>> pass through Geordieland, where they talk total gibberish.
>
> Why criticize the Scots for their "poor" English, when the language
> was unwillingly forced on them?

Obviously not from this wee Island, are ye laddie ?

Obviously canna read the words printed above properly laddie ?

Maybe time to ge' yerself some new glasses laddie ?
--
slumpy
no more
no less
just me

[Terry Cursillo]

> The King James Bible dating from the early 1600s is even mostly
> comprehensible today.


Comprehensible, maybe. Believable, no.


You have to go back to the time of Chaucer for
> language drift to pose serious problems to an average person.


The English of the early 1600s is indeed not comprehensible to kids
today. I train young products of America's public school system and by
turn of the century standards most are at roughly a fourth or fifth
grade reading level. Catholic school kids actually do better-they are
at roughly the seventh grade. "Honors" English classes in some of
these public schools offer challenges such as Miller, Mailer, and the
incomprehensible Bukowski and Burroughs. Fundie and Mormon education,
sad to confess, is actually better at teaching reading comprehension
and the Mormons at least teach excellent math skills.

[Willie K.Yee, M.D.]

>>> I just got back from a mad dash to Scotland, where
>>> they speak English. Unfortunately en route one must
>>> pass through Geordieland, where they talk total gibberish.

Elsewhere in the world, it sounds like this:

Room Service: Morny. Rune-sore-bees.
Hotel Guest: Oh, sorry. I thought I dialed Room Service.
RS: Rye, rune-sore-bees. Morny. Djewish to odor sunteen?
HG: Uh... yes. I'd like some bacon and eggs.
RS: Ow July then?
HG: What?
RS: Aches. Ow July then? Pry, boy, pooch...?
HG: Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry. Scrambled please.
RS: Ow July thee baycome? Crease?
HG: Crisp will be fine.
RS: Okay. An Santos?
HG: What?
RS: Santos. July Santos?
HG: Ugh. I don't know... I don't think so.
RS: No. Judo one toes?
HG: Look, I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what
"judo
one toes" means. I'm sorry.
RS: Toes! Toes! Why djew Don Juan toes? Ow bow cenglish mopping
we bother?
HG: English muffin! I've got it! You were saying toast! Fine. An
English muffin will be fine.
RS: We bother?
HG: No. Just put the bother on the side.
RS: Wad?
HG: I'm sorry. I meant butter. Butter on the side.
RS: Copy?
HG: I feel terrible about this but...
RS: Copy. Copy, tea, mill...
HG: Coffee! Yes, coffee please. And that's all.
RS: One Minnie. Ass rune torino fee, strangle aches, crease
baycome, tossy cenglish mopping we bother honey sigh, and copy. Rye?
HG: Whatever you say.
RS: Okay. Tendjewberrymud.
HG: You're welcome.


Willie K. Yee, M.D. http://users.bestweb.net/~wkyee
Developer of Problem Knowledge Couplers for Psychiatry http://www.pkc.com
Webmaster and Guitarist for the Big Blue Big Band http://www.bigbluebigband.org

[slumpy]

Voicing an opinion as worthless as a wino at a wedding, Willie K.Yee, M.D.
postulated...

>>>> I just got back from a mad dash to Scotland, where
>>>> they speak English. Unfortunately en route one must
>>>> pass through Geordieland, where they talk total gibberish.
>
> Elsewhere in the world, it sounds like this:
>
> Room Service: Morny. Rune-sore-bees.
> Hotel Guest: Oh, sorry. I thought I dialed Room Service.
> RS: Rye, rune-sore-bees. Morny. Djewish to odor sunteen?
> HG: Uh... yes. I'd like some bacon and eggs.
> RS: Ow July then?
> HG: What?
> RS: Aches. Ow July then? Pry, boy, pooch...?
> HG: Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry. Scrambled please.
> RS: Ow July thee baycome? Crease?
> HG: Crisp will be fine.
> RS: Okay. An Santos?
> HG: What?
> RS: Santos. July Santos?
> HG: Ugh. I don't know... I don't think so.
> RS: No. Judo one toes?
> HG: Look, I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what
> "judo
> one toes" means. I'm sorry.
> RS: Toes! Toes! Why djew Don Juan toes? Ow bow cenglish mopping
> we bother?
> HG: English muffin! I've got it! You were saying toast! Fine. An
> English muffin will be fine.
> RS: We bother?
> HG: No. Just put the bother on the side.
> RS: Wad?
> HG: I'm sorry. I meant butter. Butter on the side.
> RS: Copy?
> HG: I feel terrible about this but...
> RS: Copy. Copy, tea, mill...
> HG: Coffee! Yes, coffee please. And that's all.
> RS: One Minnie. Ass rune torino fee, strangle aches, crease
> baycome, tossy cenglish mopping we bother honey sigh, and copy. Rye?
> HG: Whatever you say.
> RS: Okay. Tendjewberrymud.
> HG: You're welcome.
>

I got lost after about the 10th line sorry ;-)
--
slumpy
no more
no less
just me