People
1) whose primary job is to interact with others via telephone and
2) who speak with an accent (with respect to the established "norm" of the region/language they are speaking)
should do their utmost to speak clearly, slowly, and with crisp enunciation.
I absofuckinglutely could NOT understand what the woman was saying! I have no idea what mixture of accents she was using. At times it had a British feel to it, but it also sounded a bit like the deep American south and had overtones of something Caribbean. She spoke so rapidly and slurred so many words together I had to listen to the message three times and I'm still not sure I got it all.
[UPDATE] Here's the message.
Bombay calling, perhaps???
I've heard plenty of Indian accents. Many of my co-workers are from India and I've participated on conference calls with people who live and work there. Not to mention all the tech support that's been outsourced there. This accent was nothing like that.
She reminded me of a professor I had in college, although her accent was unlike his. Just that his was such a mixture of other accents. He was born in a West African country where they spoke French in addition to his native language, and he had been educated at Oxford, but lived in the US for many years. He, too, was nearly incomprehensible at times. Didn't help that he was also teaching an incomprehensible course -- Advanced Linear Algebra! LOL!
She's Hispanic.
Um - Dominican Republic, I'd wager (which ties in with the Caribbean overtones). She sounds EXACTLY like a friend of ours from there.
Actually, she sounded very much like my doctor, who is a native of Saudi Arabia. Except that Dr. M is a doctor, not an auctioneer.
That was me horsing around.
Sorry.
Okay,
Father Luke
I can never, ever, ever figure out why people with thick accents are hired to work as customer service reps, techs, or whatever, with jobs that require them to interact with English-speaking customers on the phone. I mean, when they were interviewed for the position couldn't the hiring guy TELL THAT HE COULDN'T FREAKIN' UNDERSTAND THEM??
"And what has your previous work experience been?"
"Quomoti work in masasuma then mealeytom slia swoomo."
"I see. And are you comfortable speaking with customers on the phone?"
"Oh masachupa! Always slethanta moo taapifliss and quimmerant poalasatha!"
"Great! You're hired!"
Some of these people sound like shit salesmen with mouthfuls of samples...
Oh frabjous day...
OK, she was just trying to see how well she could speak without moving the left side of her mouth. Darned office pools.
But this did remind me of my frustration on the cruise I recently took: so many of the international crew members had such thick accents I couldn't make out what was being said to me at all. The worst case was talking to the purser on the phone. Her office pool had her trying not to use any side of her mouth.