Please Speak "Normal" English

[TelephoneAngel]

FroM yesterday, the woman was in her early twenties and insiSted on talking to me in "some kind of street-speak".It was English, after a fashion, but I understood only two words in every ten.Every word was abreviated.She was not an ethnic minority either, this was totally an affectation on her part.

no kidding it was a bit like this

customer "yo, dis arvo, im awanna tak bout me pro.

me - i'm sorry can you repeat that please?

customer -"me tak to uuuuu yep bout me pro wid count, ima wanna ge dis fix dis arvo.

me - erm, are you saying you have a problem with your account you would like me to look into today?

customer - "yep dat wha ima say yeah.

This went on for a long time till i worked it out and sorted out the problem.

Please please please, I don't care how you talk with your friends but if you are calling a call centre PLEASE SPEAK NORMAL ENGLISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EvilEmpryss]

Too bad asking her to write it down wouldn't likely help much. You'd probably have to translate text-ese.

[Magpie]

You know, not only would it get people like this who were trying to be annoying, but it would help people who honestly didn't speak English if you were allowed to direct them to translation services, and tell them to call back using one of those.

[tollbaby]

that's what I would have told her too, since I never would have even gotten as much as the OP did out of what she said!

[42_42_42]

My response to her would have been "I'm sorry, I only speak English. Is there someone else there who speaks English to whom I can speak instead?" Because I completely would have had no idea that she was speaking some kind of "street English" it would have just sounded like jibberish to me and I would assume it was a language I had not encountered before. Of course, that would have resulted in the caller becoming pissed, but if you don't speak English properly, you really have no cause to fault others for not understanding you.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

What some whack talkin' yo! Fry mah hide!

Bitch be trippin'!

[fma_fanatic]

Listen lady, I only speak two languages: English and bad English!

[Chromatix]

I'm convinced that Ebonics is a whole different language. With many dialects, to boot.

[Hyndis]

Listen lady, I only speak two languages: English and bad English!

Multipass?

[Legal Eagle]

i was so worried the title was going to lead to a racism story.....


Also annoying are people who "typ l33t spk" in emails, i can just about understand it on texts(dise note: i'm the kind of saddo who actually uses things like commas in texts), but on an email which isn't being sent to a close friend, it really isn't appropriate.

[EvilEmpryss]

Multipass?

Yeah, 5th Element!

[TelephoneAngel]

What some whack talkin' yo! Fry mah hide!

Bitch be trippin'!

Oh she's your customer as well?

[fma_fanatic]

Hehe yes I love that movie. Even though we have it on dvd, DDD will let me know it's on. HBO has it on it's rotation again.

[Jay 2K Winger]

i was so worried the title was going to lead to a racism story.....


Also annoying are people who "typ l33t spk" in emails, i can just about understand it on texts(dise note: i'm the kind of saddo who actually uses things like commas in texts), but on an email which isn't being sent to a close friend, it really isn't appropriate.

This is another example of what I like to call "glossoLOLia." -_-;

[bainsidhe]

Also annoying are people who "typ l33t spk" in emails, i can just about understand it on texts(dise note: i'm the kind of saddo who actually uses things like commas in texts), but on an email which isn't being sent to a close friend, it really isn't appropriate.

Or when at work and sending company emails. It's really sad that I have to copy a boss on my email to get someone to stop emailing text-speak. My head hurts enough when it makes sense. Sweet girl, but sheesh.