This is america...

[Deceptitech]

One from a while ago.

I have a coworker named Mohammed. He was born in New York, but his parents are immigrants. Nice guy, may not know all his tech stuff, but he is a genuinely helpful person. He only has one problem. Fervor against foreigners who call and get mad cause he has an accent and his name. So he changed his name so when people call he tells them his name is "Bobby". SCs still complain about him.

He sits near me, and I can see his battle weary face everytime someone calls and yell that they want "An American, and not you". I feel for him. He's trying to earn a living here, and because of something out of his control he is persecuted. So I get evil on people who get him, scream that he's not an american and hang up only to call back and get me. They should have let him help them. This happened a few days ago:

D: Evil tech support bastard.
SC: small minded twit
M: someone who gets my sympathies.
*chatter*: Another case of MBT.
Earlier that day a customer calls and hangs up on "bobby"

D: Thank you for calling retardsrus.com, my name is Deceptitech, may I have your name please?
SC: Thank god, an American. Where are you located?
D: That's right.*oh bother, one of THOSE people* I'm in Florida.
SC: Yeah, I hate talking to paki people cause they can't understand english *like you can speak it* I called earlier and some Indian guy tried to tell me you didn't have this part I want. *I remember you you jerk, the guy sitting next to me told me about your kind words and I looked up what you wanted cause he didn't know what you meant*
D: Was his name Bobby?
SC: Yeah, I hate those damn Indians.
D: Yeah, he sits right next to me. Would you like to speak with him?
(sitting next to me)M: I don't want to talk to him. You aren't transferring him to me got it?
SC: I wanted to talk to an American. Where are you from? *Abu Dhabi*
D: I am from Illinois, but I live in Florida. Bobby is from New York. Last time I checked, that was in America.
SC: yeah, well I was looking for something to plug my ass to a hole in the ground(obviously not the real part). He said you don't have them. Can you look? *That's it jerk*
D: Yes, I was the one who researched that part for you for Bobby. They don't manufacture those adapters. No one has them. You cannot get an adapter from your ass to a hole in the ground.
SC: yes they do, I need it.
D: you may need it, but that doesn't mean that you can get one. There is no adapter for that part. You can contact the manufacturer to see if they can custom make you one, but I doubt it.
M: He is still looking for that part? Be nice.
SC: Well, they make it here in America. I've seen it at one of your local stores.
D: Then you should have picked it up there, but I assure you it is not a part made at all.
SC: Well that's what that indian said. I wanted to -
D: Sir, he is an American, he was born in New York. the United States is a huge country with people who come in from all over the world. He was trying to help you when you screamed at him simply because he has an accent.
SC: Well I don't like F***ing foreigners. I wanted to talk to an american.
D: Sir, he is an american, as am I. and your language is not tolerated. I am releasing this call.
SC: Well FU--- ---RELEASED---
M: Another satisfied customer.
D: Maybe he should have called India.

People are too judgemental. Maybe I am as well, but I do not judge people by a simple accent.

[Ryu]

i admit i hate when i cant understand someone AT ALL whether they be an employee or a customer, but if i can understand them with an accent i dont care and its not because their from another country i dont like dealing with them its i cant deal with them if i cant understand them at all

[Antisocial_Worker]

I've gotten to witness this kind of behavior far more than I would have liked to, working at a hotel owned by an Indian. She gets very medieval on the asses of intolerant people. I remember writing a post about here a few months ago wherein a man told her to go back where she came from and she tore into but good before she charged his credit card for the nights stayed with us and threw him out. As I recall, questions about his lineage were raised, especially as to whether or not his parents might have been closely related. Somehow, this segued into a frank discussion about American foreign policy and the world perception of the United States, and while my boss later told me she was sorry for that, she wasn't a bit sorry for what came before that.

Another time, when told she should go back where she came from, she simply replied, dryly and in that unmistakeable Gujarati accent, "I come from Cleveland," which left the racist SC goggle-eyed, mouth opening and closing not unlike the goldfish we keep in our lobby aquarium. It's not true that she comes from Cleveland, of course, because in fact she was born in Mombasa, Kenya. However, she said she just couldn't help herself and besides, Cleveland was the first place she and her family lived upon moving to the US.

On at least two or three occassions, people have been tossed out into the street for daring to accuse my boss of being Pakistani. And here lately, a dissatisfied guest wrote us a snotty comment card asking if the owners refuse to put Bibles in the rooms because they're Indian. We're waiting to see if they take their complaint to corporate, and if they do, they're going to receive a nasty little letter I wrote last night. A couple of weeks ago another guest complained that the hotel wasn't run well because it was owned by Indians, and said also that if she'd known our housekeeping staff was made up of "dirty Mexicans" she wouldn't have stayed here. She also told us that she'd been thinking of moving here but wouldn't be now because she and her husband thought the place was absolutely infested with Mexicans. The desk clerk they told all this to replied that their not moving here would be in everyone's best interest, ours most of all.

The next day the guest went home, presumably to get away from all these Indians and Mexicans here in Western North Carolina.

The punchline? That guest lives in Henderson, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas. You figure it out.

[Deceptitech]

Understanding people.

i admit i hate when i cant understand someone AT ALL whether they be an employee or a customer, but if i can understand them with an accent i dont care and its not because their from another country i dont like dealing with them its i cant deal with them if i cant understand them at all

Understandable. I can't stand dealing with people who are not understandable either. Accents are one thing, but when someone is talking like theb habb a moufll oh mawbles it just makes me go "Can you speak clearly? I cannot understand you." I ask twice, then do the "Si- y--re -re--ing u-. P-eas- -ang up -nd ca-- b--k a-ain. Th-n- you f-r -alli-g."

[karma_gypsy]

SC: yeah, well I was looking for something to plug my ass to a hole in the ground(obviously not the real part). He said you don't have them. Can you look? *That's it jerk*

I like your version of the story . . . very clever. You should show it to Bobby for a good giggle.

Granted I sometimes have hard time understanding people with thick accents (especially if they're fast talkers!), I don't get pissy with them for being of a different culture.

[protege]

Understandable. I can't stand dealing with people who are not understandable either.

Exactly. I don't care where someone comes from. If I can't understand them, I refuse to deal with them. It's not just our foreign friends either--plenty of local idiots can't speak English worth a damn either

[ArenaBoy]

Plenty of local idiots can't speak English worth a damn either

I am glad that I am not the only one who has thought that. I've had people mumble, talk too fast or my favorite ask me a question while they're opening their window it drives me nuts. If I so much ask them to repeat they launch into me.

I never dealt with a xenophobic customer, but I work with xenophobic managers. I posted about one of them calling a German customer a idiot and exclaiming something else just because he asked if the college venue is indoors or outdoors.

By the way, I really don't care about anyone's skin color at all. As long as you are a nice person and everything, I really don't care.

[Knightmare]

I had a customer, when I was at RadioShack, that I couldn't understand at all. He was a middle aged man, heavy set, and had the deepest southern accent. Southern as in Louisiana, middle of Cajun country.

I don't remember what he asked for, but I do remember asking him 5 times to repeat what he needed.

He said it again, I said "What do you need again?"

He said, V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y and with concentrated elocution "Could you please speak slower. I can't understand you."

So I couldn't understand him because of his slow, deep drawl, and he couldn't understand me because I was speaking so fast. We both started laughing after figuring that out.

Apparently us Northerners speak very fast. I didn't know. But I did think it was funny we were both asking one another to repeat what we had just said because neither of us understood what the other was saying.

[powerboy]

Exactly. I don't care where someone comes from. If I can't understand them, I refuse to deal with them.

I am the same way

[RecoveringKinkoid]

At Kinko's, I once dealt with a couple guys, AMERICANS no less, with such poor English, such rotten grammar, and such sloppy speech habits and communication skills I could barely understand them.

15 minutes later, a deaf mute couple came into the store. They evidently were barely literate on top of that. Either that, or didn't "speak" english. Guess what? They communicated what they wanted to me just fine.

It's pretty bad when a couple of non-writing, non speaking deaf people can communicate with an English speaker better than another English speaker.

[Seanette]

That is bad.

Add me to the "as long as you're competent, civil, and understandable, I don't care where you're from" group. I might politely inquire as to someone's background if they have an accent I find interesting, but it's not likely to affect my opinion of the person. I go on content of skin, not pigment or origin thereof.

[Becks]

People tell me sometimes that I'm hard to understand. It MUST be because I've got the only Wisconsin "accent" in all of New Jersey.

[AFpheonix]

The only times I've had trouble communicating with someone are the time I got a deaf-mute who was not english speaking/reading, and I couldn't get him to understand the concept of "no refills left", and he was mad that I only gave him a 3 day supply until we heard back from his doctor.
The other one is a nice korean man who speaks very limited english. I usually pawn him off on the korean tech. It's fair, they pawn me off on the spanish speakers, and we sic the vietnamese RPh on the little old vietnamese people, one of which brings us fresh produce now and again and giggles like a little banshee. Dang, I like that lady.

We do get quite a few trogs who get mad because they can't understand a tech or an intern or extern. Gee, that's funny, they're perfectly understandable to me, what's wrong with YOU? maybe if you shut up and LISTEN.... The worst one was an incident with a Russian extern we had a few months back. A regular trog put her into a cussing fit because he was putting her down so badly. She BARELY had an accent at all. We're all pretty cold with him now. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.

[CrazedClerk]

One of my friends is of Indian heritage but born and raised here in Canada, he can speak perfect english, but also does a great stereotypical Indian accent.

He and I have had so much fun with racist people over the years.

[thewhatnow]

OHhh GOD do I feel for you and Bobby! I'm Argentinian, live in Argentina and work for an American company (call center). I have an American accent so customers always think I'm an American. I get this at LEAST 3 times a day, everyday.

"Thank GOD I finally got an American! Where are you located? I was just talking to someone from like uh, Japan I think, and I couldn't understand them at all!!!1one"

Not to mention my co-workers. "I won't talk to you. Let me speak to an American."

They do have a (Spanish, not Indian or Japanese!) accent, but I can assure you 95% of them you can understand just fine.

God, how I hate racists.