Dell on Call!
My laptop crashed and that’s the reason why I could not post anything for a brief period of time. Gone are those days when I used to pay Rs. 20 /-, browse an hour and be contended for the rest of the week. But today, I feel amputated if I don’t have my laptop or Internet even for a day. Huh! I guess I have become addict or too much dependant on these stuffs. Well, that’s not the main crux of this post.
I had to call up Dell to find a solution to bring my laptop back to life. As usual I got the machine and it drove me crazy. It was a voice-activated system. I had to shout “Yes”, “No”, “Correct”, “Help” etc at the top of my voice to get connected to where I wanted to. The system had an accent issue! It accepts only if you say, “Yeas” and not if you say “S” on the fly. I was shouting “Yesss”, “Yeasss” and even “Ass” sometimes due to desperation. Well, why wouldn’t people think of developing such systems that recognize neutral accent?
After all these English pronunciation training, I got through to a REAL PERSON. Gosh! It felt real good to hear from a fellow human being after being harassed by a machine. But the person gave me problems as well; I couldn’t effortlessly make out what he was speaking many a times. He was too fast and his accent was certainly not American. I haven’t had problems with the American accent before, but this time, it was really testing. I some how managed to guess what the guy was trying to convey. I was getting accustomed to his accent and suddenly he asked me, “Which part of India do you hail from Naveen?” I was surprised. I wasn’t anticipating such a question. How would this guy know where on earth was this place, if I say I was from Chennai? But just not to offend him, I told him the answer. He was happy and told me about the Marina beach and the Golden beach. I was like, “Wow, how did you know about them?” He said, “I work out of Kolkata”.
For the first time, I got a chance to speak with an Indian call center guy. I must admit I didn’t even get a clue from his accent that he was an Indian, though I could make out that he was certainly not American. But anyways, is this not a compliment to that guy? A job well done! Probably, he should speak a little slower with more pauses and stresses!
My laptop crashed and that’s the reason why I could not post anything for a brief period of time. Gone are those days when I used to pay Rs. 20 /-, browse an hour and be contended for the rest of the week. But today, I feel amputated if I don’t have my laptop or Internet even for a day. Huh! I guess I have become addict or too much dependant on these stuffs. Well, that’s not the main crux of this post.
I had to call up Dell to find a solution to bring my laptop back to life. As usual I got the machine and it drove me crazy. It was a voice-activated system. I had to shout “Yes”, “No”, “Correct”, “Help” etc at the top of my voice to get connected to where I wanted to. The system had an accent issue! It accepts only if you say, “Yeas” and not if you say “S” on the fly. I was shouting “Yesss”, “Yeasss” and even “Ass” sometimes due to desperation. Well, why wouldn’t people think of developing such systems that recognize neutral accent?
After all these English pronunciation training, I got through to a REAL PERSON. Gosh! It felt real good to hear from a fellow human being after being harassed by a machine. But the person gave me problems as well; I couldn’t effortlessly make out what he was speaking many a times. He was too fast and his accent was certainly not American. I haven’t had problems with the American accent before, but this time, it was really testing. I some how managed to guess what the guy was trying to convey. I was getting accustomed to his accent and suddenly he asked me, “Which part of India do you hail from Naveen?” I was surprised. I wasn’t anticipating such a question. How would this guy know where on earth was this place, if I say I was from Chennai? But just not to offend him, I told him the answer. He was happy and told me about the Marina beach and the Golden beach. I was like, “Wow, how did you know about them?” He said, “I work out of Kolkata”.
For the first time, I got a chance to speak with an Indian call center guy. I must admit I didn’t even get a clue from his accent that he was an Indian, though I could make out that he was certainly not American. But anyways, is this not a compliment to that guy? A job well done! Probably, he should speak a little slower with more pauses and stresses!
6 Comments:
Haha! Looks like you had quite an experience. So any news from the doc regarding your laptop? :D
ah! the net and my comp... i'm quite an addict myself :D... jus waiting for my laptop!!!(not too long for that! :D)
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You should have heard them during their voice and accent training!
I have been trying to select a dial tone for my mobile for so long..we have to 'say' the song we want..and its not working for me!
$ Rita - My laptop is back to life..but it needed a formatting :(
$ Lakshana - Hope you get one soon :)
$ Neema - I'm sure that would have been rigourous!
$ Shikha - Ha ha! I feel bad for you :)
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