The phonetic alphabet really isn't that tough.

[Golden Phoenix]

An old story i rememebrred from a while back.

I was manning the customer-facing telephone lines and i'd just taken a payment and was giving the payment reference number.

DW: Dimwit
Me: you figure it out.

Me: ok, your payment went through fine, your payment reference is A C 4....
Dw: A E 4
Me: No A, *C*, 4.
Dw: E C 4
Me: No, Alpha Echo four,
Dw: Ok
Me: Hotel nine Juliet, Whisky Tango zero
DW: Hotel...uh, that's, um.
Me: H
DW: Oh, ok. Nine, Juliet...uh, G.
Me: No J for juliet.
Dw: Can you just go back to using the letters please?
Me: H 9 J, W T 0
Dw: H 9 G, W 3 0?
Me: *sigh*

I have since moved to our agent-facing telephone lines and run into this sitiation far too often.

[Summerfly413]

Oh I hate that. Though I do get J and G mixed up when I'm hearing them.

[edible_hat]

It's worse when you get a smart arse saying things like "A for 'orses, B for mutton, C for miles..."

[Rine]

@Summerfly, the same thing happens to me. I was fine before I took two French classes and now I am always switching "J" and "G."


But yeah...I can *maybe* see why the man might have been having problems. Someone could be telling me something, like a phone number and I always have to have them repeat it multiple times. It can be quite frustrating for me and the person trying to tell me something to write down!

Though I don't think I've messed up that bad. Poor fellow.

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

That's right! In French, J is G, and G is J.

Since hubby is French, now I spell jam "G-A-M."

GAHH!

[taurinejunkie]

Working in a bilingual environment and switching language very often, I get my J/G mixed up sometimes. But then I think of the name Jay->J and it helps me remember.

In my training when they quickly touched phonetic alphabet, they mentioned an agent who was getting evaluated and said 'U for Urine'.

[Hobbs]

FYI, each language has a different phonetic alphabet. Even the alphabet used by the UK is different from that used by the US Armed Forces.

Just fyi, I had to spell my name phonetically in AF class the other day...even tougher since I changed it last September, lol

[fireheart]

In my training when they quickly touched phonetic alphabet, they mentioned an agent who was getting evaluated and said 'U for Urine'.

That's too good.

I can remember most letters except for a few.

ETA: How about we try and do said alphabet? Lol, here's what I know.

A-Alpha.
B-Bravo.
C-Charlie.
D-Delta.
E-Echo
F-Foxtrot
G-Golf
H
I-India
J-Julian/Julia?
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S-Sierra
T-Tango
U-?
V
W-Whisky.
X-X-Ray
Y-Yankee...
Z-?

Anyone care to add? (Australia I think uses the US system)

[VComps]

That's A as in eye, S as in sea, E as in eye, E as in ewe.... (I love doing that to customers who tick me off by interrupting me 10000000 times on the phone.)

[PepperElf]

whiskey tango foxtrot!


though i do remember hearing once (maybe on the news but it wasn't here) that some lady was OFFENDED because they said "D as in Dog"... because they must be calling her a dog then! O_o

(and don't forget G as in Gnu!)

[Velfarre2001]

Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliette
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whisky
X-Ray
Yankee
Zulu

[Slytovhand]

Me: ok, your payment went through fine, your payment reference is A C 4....

Me: No, Alpha Echo four,

Yeah, I can see why they'd be a bit confused...

Velfarre... copy that Though, really, some letters just shouldn't be used on the public... like most of them! I hate hate hate hate hate when you want to clarify a letter, and they just keep repeating that letter over and over, like it makes a difference...

"Was that a T as in Tango, or P as in Papa?"
"No, T(B..P..E...) T, T"
"Yeah - that's really helped!!"

[pile of monkeys]

I used to use the military phonetic alphabet for clarification, but I found that many of the people I spoke with still didn't get it. So now I use names (A as in Adam, B as in Betsy, M as in Michael, N as in Nancy, etc.), and it seems to work OK.

[Flood]

Yeah, I can see why they'd be a bit confused...

Velfarre... copy that Though, really, some letters just shouldn't be used on the public... like most of them! I hate hate hate hate hate when you want to clarify a letter, and they just keep repeating that letter over and over, like it makes a difference...

"Was that a T as in Tango, or P as in Papa?"
"No, T(B..P..E...) T, T"
"Yeah - that's really helped!!"

I once worked for a shipping company where the Warehouses were named B, V, D, P, and E, for a supervisor that pronounced them all exactly the same.

I wanted to run over whoever labeled the warehouses with my forklift.

[mandaliz8704]

I was reading a software activation code to someone over the phone once (I worked for a software co, and this person had lost thier key and needed a temp code) and I used the Military alphabet. Dude read it back to me, hit the F halfway through and said "F like Fuck"....stammered for a second, said thank you and hung up. LOL