For the first time in 6 years I recently got through to an Orange call centre abroad. This slightly alarms me, since I hate having to deal with foreign call centres. I was wondering if any other operators have mainly UK call centres.
This isn't a racist thing and I'm not being cantankerous. Having had a hearing problem since birth, I apparently subconsciously adapt in a number of ways, one of which is from getting subtle clues from speech patterns, cadence and the like. Consequently I find the odd speech patterns and pronunciations of foreign call centre workers pure stress.
It's not as simple as mere accent, or even the workers ability to understand and speak pure English - it's more complicated than that. For example I don't have the same degree of problems with someone who has been in England or another primarily English-speaking country for a while, but who might still speak a sort of broken english or speak with an accent. In general they will have unconsciously picked up certain subtle speech patterns from the native population. Someone who has never lived in an English speaking country, but who might have technically good english, will not have acquired this. I often find that call centre workers in India or wherever, while speaking technically excellent english, have something odd about their cadence and speech patterns that makes it a trial for me to communicate with them.
This isn't a racist thing and I'm not being cantankerous. Having had a hearing problem since birth, I apparently subconsciously adapt in a number of ways, one of which is from getting subtle clues from speech patterns, cadence and the like. Consequently I find the odd speech patterns and pronunciations of foreign call centre workers pure stress.
It's not as simple as mere accent, or even the workers ability to understand and speak pure English - it's more complicated than that. For example I don't have the same degree of problems with someone who has been in England or another primarily English-speaking country for a while, but who might still speak a sort of broken english or speak with an accent. In general they will have unconsciously picked up certain subtle speech patterns from the native population. Someone who has never lived in an English speaking country, but who might have technically good english, will not have acquired this. I often find that call centre workers in India or wherever, while speaking technically excellent english, have something odd about their cadence and speech patterns that makes it a trial for me to communicate with them.



