Cultural Education in the Call Center
I am learning all sort of interesting little things working in the call center. (Other, slightly more intellectually stimulating work is forthcoming, but this pays the bills!)
Evidently, cultural acceptance of "foreign" accents is roughly analogous to blood-types, at least among native English speakers. According to the management:
- the Welsh only want to hear another Welshman on the other end of the line
- Irish will accept Irish or Welsh
- English will generally accept any British accent, but don't like talking to Americans
- Americans will accept any native English-speaker
This is based on the success of callers actually getting an interview with people of the different nationalities, so maybe Brits just think that Americans sound more like they're trying to sell something, or maybe Americans will talk to anyone who gives them a chance to vent. I think it's an interesting phenomenon, whatever the reason.
I'll freely admit I cringe when I hear someone speaking German with a heavy American accent (such as that of the truly amusing runway coach on "Germany's Next Top Model"), and I hope that mine is not too awful, but I've never given much thought to how my accent might be received when speaking English.
I guess I would have expected all nationalities to prefer the most familiar accent, rather than that breakdown. Basically it just means that if they ever run out of projects involving America, American "interviewers" are SOL, but as 80% of the projects are to America, it's not much of an issue.
The surreality of working in an environment where everyone is a native English speaker except the management, and where shifts are arranged based on North American business hours, I'll save for another day!
Evidently, cultural acceptance of "foreign" accents is roughly analogous to blood-types, at least among native English speakers. According to the management:
- the Welsh only want to hear another Welshman on the other end of the line
- Irish will accept Irish or Welsh
- English will generally accept any British accent, but don't like talking to Americans
- Americans will accept any native English-speaker
This is based on the success of callers actually getting an interview with people of the different nationalities, so maybe Brits just think that Americans sound more like they're trying to sell something, or maybe Americans will talk to anyone who gives them a chance to vent. I think it's an interesting phenomenon, whatever the reason.
I'll freely admit I cringe when I hear someone speaking German with a heavy American accent (such as that of the truly amusing runway coach on "Germany's Next Top Model"), and I hope that mine is not too awful, but I've never given much thought to how my accent might be received when speaking English.
I guess I would have expected all nationalities to prefer the most familiar accent, rather than that breakdown. Basically it just means that if they ever run out of projects involving America, American "interviewers" are SOL, but as 80% of the projects are to America, it's not much of an issue.
The surreality of working in an environment where everyone is a native English speaker except the management, and where shifts are arranged based on North American business hours, I'll save for another day!