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Voice and Accent

Guest   Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:49 pm GMT

I hate Indian call centers :( The last time I called some guy tried to tell me that his name was Sam!!! You know, Christians also live in India, that's why you get to hear names like John, Sam......etc

Robin   Tue Jan 02, 2007 6:13 pm GMT

I worked in a British Telecom Call Centre in Aberdeen, where there were quite a few Indian Graduates working. The one thing that I would advice is to try not to sound like a character in 'Goodness Gracious Me'. http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/g/goodnessgracious_66601650.shtml Indian people have their own way of speaking English, and when they get carried away they sound like a character in a comedy show. The best accent to aim for is 'RP' Received Pronunciation, because it is essentially 'formal English'. There is a Weather man, who might be Indian, who has his own quirky descriptions of the various weather systems. He is able to get away with it, because he is obviously a bit a character. There are somethings that British people can do, that Indian people cannot do, such as talk about the weather. However, whenever I have got through to an Indian Call Centre, I have always been struck by how polite they are. I feel that I would be creating a bad impression of what British people are like, if I was rude in return. I think that what you want to aim for, is 'well spoken', polite and unassuming. We were also instructed to say 'sorry' at every opportunity. "I am sorry you had to wait for us to answer the phone.""I am sorry that you have a problem with your telephone bill." etc. It was a high flying American woman who introduced this policy.

Travis   Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:57 pm GMT

>>Indian people have their own way of speaking English, and when they get carried away they sound like a character in a comedy show. The best accent to aim for is 'RP' Received Pronunciation, because it is essentially 'formal English'.<< Ahem, but Isn't RP but one standard, not *the* standard when it comes to English?

Uriel   Tue Jan 02, 2007 9:47 pm GMT

Well, Travis, it's the standard an Indian is more likely to achieve. Americans don't worry about giving our country a bad rap. Advantage of already having one! ;) We can be as ill-behaved as we like! But I think that it's important to remember that YOU called THEM because you want THEIR help -- don't make it hard for them to give you what you want by being a dickhead, or verbally abusing them -- that's called "biting the hand that feeds you". And that's pretty much YOU wasting your OWN time!