Especially in a "globalized" environment

Posted Feb 23, 2007 0:48 UTC (Fri) by AnswerGuy (guest, #1256)
In reply to: Voice is overrated by i3839
Parent article: Doesn't the Social Web Realize that People Talk? (O'ReillyNet)

Sadly I find myself needing to use chat with a few of my colleagues in India. No offense intended, but a couple of them have accents that are so thick that I just can't understand them via voice ... but their writing is generally much better.

(Of course I try to be circumspect and tactful about the issue --- and it's really only that extreme with a couple of them, roughly half of our workforce ... ~5K employees and contractors, are located in or recent immigrants from other countries. But still ...)

Especially in a "globalized" environment

Posted Feb 23, 2007 10:30 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

It's the reason we are not using phone here at all - unless it's emergency. We DO use VC often, and it helps immensely, but of course before you'll call someone by videophone you'll contact him via IM first (because videophone is even more intrusive the normal phone).

Offtopic globalisation rant

Posted Feb 23, 2007 14:45 UTC (Fri) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] (1 responses)

Talking to the friendly people in the Indian call centres which operate all the Australian telcos these days can be amusing. Today I had to correct a misspelling over and over -- the lady repeatedly heard my Aussie letter 'I' as an 'A'. 'I for India' overcame the problem and provoked laughter.

It does really irritate me, though, when personal names are faked to make foreign customers more 'comfortable' -- we're just not that insular anymore, no country is. I know and she knows that her name is not 'Kylie'! Lately I've met more Divitas and Bharats, which is pleasing, but some call centres persist in the lie.

Reminds me of My Fair Lady :-)

Posted Mar 3, 2007 2:07 UTC (Sat) by pr1268 (guest, #24648) [Link]

Eliza Doolitle: Didn't ah sy that?

Professor Higgins: No, Eliza, you didn't sigh that, you didn't even "say" that.

- From the Audrey Hepburn/Rex Harrison movie My Fair Lady.)

No disrespect intended. I totally value cultural diversity.