Author Topic: Not Always Right: Misunderstanding accent  (Read 327 times)

Offline Lynn2000

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Not Always Right: Misunderstanding accent
« on: March 13, 2019, 12:19:18 pm »
https://notalwaysright.com/heard-what-youve-bin-saying/142481/
From the "Not Always Working" subsection of "Not Always Right." This story takes place in a UK company, where some colleagues from South Africa are visiting. A visitor approaches an agent looking for "Bin," which the agent repeatedly assumes is "bin," like a trash can. At one point the agent even takes the visitor by the arm, leads them into another room, and pours the visitor's coffee in the trash, thinking that's what they want! Finally the visitor says, "No, I'm looking for Bin Smith!" that is, Ben Smith, a fellow co-worker.

I agree the agent was pretty dumb and condescending in his attempt to be helpful. But, I can't help thinking that maybe if the visitor had started out with, "Hello, I'm looking for Ben Smith, I think he works in this area," a lot of trouble would have been averted, no matter how he pronounced things. To start with, "I'm looking for Ben?" would probably just lead to, "Ben? Ben who?" unless there's somehow only one person named Ben and everyone knows him. And definitely, once the agent started showing him trash cans, why not say, "I'm sorry, there seems to be a misunderstanding, I'm looking for a person named Ben who works here"? I can see being the visitor somewhere and not being very confident, and then you get flustered because someone isn't understanding, but this is apparently a call center where people work with words a lot and have to learn to communicate clearly. Why not stop, take a breath, force a smile, and take back the situation, rather than letting someone pour out your coffee in confusion?

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Offline Vanquished

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Re: Not Always Right: Misunderstanding accent
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2019, 01:23:57 pm »
I read that story. The person had a South African accent but could speak English and I very much believe he would have realized the confusion after the OP was clearly (before the coffee incident) talking about a receptacle.
I believe about 30% of what I read on there.

Offline Lynn2000

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Re: Not Always Right: Misunderstanding accent
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2019, 01:35:17 pm »
That's a good point! It makes a good story, but it's hard to believe the visitor didn't speak up when the confusion became obvious, which was right away. I could believe it more if the visitor didn't speak much English at all, as they might not have known other ways to phrase what they wanted, but that didn't seem to be the case here.

I work in a place with a lot of international people who have varying grasps on English, and there have been some interesting misunderstandings. The one that first comes to mind is when it was 4:45pm on a Friday (of course) and I had to help a person who was using a machine we were responsible for. I'm trying to think of a good analogy for what he had done... there is a plastic sheet you're supposed to put through the machine, but you need to peel the piece of paper off the sheet first, and he hadn't, and just ran the whole thing through. Like trying to use something without removing the safety seal first, maybe. And in his case, it revealed a fundamental misunderstanding of the whole technique, because the piece of paper wasn't just packaging, it was actually a vital component of his experiment, which had now been ruined by going through the machine. I think I had to lay the mutilated, waterlogged paper back on top of the plastic sheet and show it to him, to get across what had happened. He got very quiet after that.

Offline Cushy Butterfield

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Re: Not Always Right: Misunderstanding accent
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2019, 05:15:16 pm »
Speaking of bins and accents: Years ago I read a story online -- can't remember where -- in which a woman in England was on the phone trying to arrange trash pickup service. The person she was talking to had an accent, and it took her a while to figure out that he wasn't offering her "great sex." (He was saying "gray sacks.")