Re: Thank you muchly

On Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:34:42 +0000, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)"
<mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:06:43 +0000, Chuck Riggs <chriggs@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 07 Dec 2008 11:44:12 -0500, tony cooper
<tony_cooper213@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 07 Dec 2008 09:53:32 +0000, Chuck Riggs <chriggs@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

No accent in the world perturbs my ear to the extent an Indian man's
does. They have an effeminate way of mincing their words that sends
shivers down my spine.

The accent doesn't bother me, but I often have a difficult time being
patient with sub-continent tech support people. They don't go
straight to the point, but rather over-formalize simple statements.

Over the phone, I can often tell how helpful they are trying to be,
but since they have a different way of expressing themselves, we often
have trouble communicating. Whenever I go into a mobile phone shop,
computer store or T.V. store, I pray beforehand that my clerk will be
an Irish one.
When I bought my Nokia smart phone I couldn't make heads or tails out
of what the Indian salesman was explaining, so I called for the
manager, an articulate Irish woman who nicely explained how it worked
in language I could understand. Without her there would have been no
sale.

I've often wondered how annoying *we* are to them. Compared to their
style of speaking, we must seem brash and rude.

How can that be when they are the brash and rude ones? I know, I know,
but patience is not a virtue I associate with Indians. Smart, clever,
often well-educated, good with technology, but difficult to deal with,
is how I see them.

It would be interesting to hear the Indian salesman's view on attempting to
explain things to you. He was possibly just as frustrated as you were.

The phrase "difficult to deal with" can have negative and disparaging
connotations. It might be more neutral and objective to say that you and the
salesman found one another "difficult to communicate with".

In point of fact, I found him to be a royal pain in the ass, largely
because of his lack of English. How's that for my attempt at improving
racial relationships? More seriously, it is up to a shop to employ
people who speak a language Irish people can understand, not up to the
majority of us to understand foreign employees with faulty English. If
their language skills are not up to par, store managers can send them
to an English class. Free ones are available in many towns and cities
in the country.
--

Regards,

Chuck Riggs
Near Dublin, Ireland
.

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