Don't get mad at me for the way you speak!!

[PepperElf]

lisps don't bother me. that's something that's physical, not learned
one of my friends has one... when i first met him i was trying to figure out his accent and he explained. then i just got use to his voice

what annoys me is when poor pronunciation is learned, and then the speaker gets mad over others not being able to understand them.

[Akasa]

You mean you don't have da bwoo wun by dat guy, yu no, he was on oh-bra...

Ok that does it, I'm going to share some pidgin with you people. This is an exceprt from Da Jesus Book, or in other words the New Testement. This is part of the introduction to the book.

"Wat Dis Book Say

Dis book, da first one dat give da local Hawaii Pidgin for da whole New Testamen from da Bible. Had 26 local peopo dat stay talk Pidgin from small kid time, dat wen translate dis book."

I can understand it written or spoken slowly, but when they talk normal speed ZOOM!

[Ravendjinn]

she couldnt write it down?
people like that dont deserve a voice

[blas]

I hear you there, Mike

But seriously though, the mumble/yell type are impossible. You can never hear a damn thing they say, it's almost as if they purposely speak as soft and as mumbojumboed as possible, just so they can yell at you "I SAID....!!!!" when you ask them to repeat themselves for the umpteenth time.

I have an ex like that, too. He had a never ending male menstrual cycle.....and he developed a really bad habbit of mumbling. Constantly mumbling. And when I'd have the nerve to ask him to please speak up, he'd raise his voice to un-necessarily loud levels and pretty much yell what he originally said to me.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Heck, got one of those last Saturday.
On the phone.

"Hmmffmfmfff gasket hmhmffmff transmission mhmmffmfm on the end."

"Excuse me sir?"

Exasperated tone "HMMHMMMFFFF GASKET HMHMFFFMMFFMMFF TRANSMISSION MHHFFFFFHMFMFFFF ON THE END!"

"I'm sorry sir, I can't understand you."

Lather rinse repeat, I ask my coworker if he can decipher hmfmfmfmfhhmmffff gasket hmhmhmmmfff transmission hmhmhmfffff on the end, he has no idea, tells me to tell hmmfmfmffff to go to a garage to ask for the exact piece he needs.

I tell hmmffffmff the info, and I get "HMMHMMMFFFF GASKET HMHMFFFMMFFMMFF TRANSMISSION MHHFFFFFHMFMFFFF ON THE END!"

I'm on the verge of asking to buy a vowel.

I ended up putting him on hold indefinitely.

HELP ME HELP YOU! Chew and swallow that hot potato in your mouth!

Or if you're bound and gagged in your own home, dial 911, not the hardware store! I'm not police trained to translate kidnapped with a sock in your mouth into english!

[MadMike]

Ever get people that are either using a lisp or accent, and when you ask or say what you think their saying, they get mad at YOU for not listening to them correctly in the first place?

You just can't win. If you can't understand them, you're stupid. And if they can't understand you, you're stupid.

What I really love are the mumbler/yeller type. You know, they mumble something too quietly for you to hear, and when you ask them to speak up, they get pissed at yell at you. My ex was one of those.

[KellyHabersham]

I've never experienced this in person, but it's happened online a few times.........the other person didn't type in English very well, and if I repeatedly had trouble understanding what they wrote, they would either get very bent out of shape, or accuse me of needing to learn English.

[karma_gypsy]

I used to have a co-worker who would mumble .... he would try and speak so fast that his words were all mumbled together ... so often I just guessed at what he said or have to have him repeat himself ...


What really drives me nuts is when the manager asks me to do something (like watch the floor or help in the pawn room) and she'll have to yell at me from across the store (it's a fairly small store), all the while not facing my direction but glancing down at a computer ... so, all I usually hear is "kg, can you mufaframemuablabbidy?"



"Ummmmm...... what?"



Most of the time I just walk over to her and ask her to repeat herself ... It's easier anyway ...

[Chromatix]

Lisps are one thing - if they nominally have a similar accent to what you normally hear, you can usually work it out.

It's when you get a severe speech impediment or a very incomplete knowledge of the language combined with a strong, unfamiliar accent - then it gets difficult to cope with.

In both cases, it does help a lot if both parties are actively trying to make themselves understood, rather than just repeating the same thing louder and slower.

[powerboy]

Don't knock everyone with a lisp. Not all of us are assholes.

[tollbaby]

You mean you don't have da bwoo wun by dat guy, yu no, he was on oh-bra...

OMG *dies* that was hilarious!!!!! (it's funny because it's true)

[edible_hat]

But I don't work at the Library, I work in a Bookstore.

Either give me the proper title name, or a scribbled note with the PROPER Title or Author, a website printout, a cellphone picture, whatever. I have better things to do that play 20 questions with someone who can't even pronounce THE without it sounding it like DUH or DA.

You mean you don't have da bwoo wun by dat guy, yu no, he was on oh-bra...

[Hon'ya-chan]

Google has technology that will suggest near matches for "odd" search terms. It strikes me that a phonetic near-matching system would be pretty useful for the library.

But I don't work at the Library, I work in a Bookstore.

Either give me the proper title name, or a scribbled note with the PROPER Title or Author, a website printout, a cellphone picture, whatever. I have better things to do that play 20 questions with someone who can't even pronounce THE without it sounding it like DUH or DA.

[edible_hat]

I once had an SC yell at me something along the lines of "WHY THE @$%& DOES THIS HAPPEN EVERYWHERE I GO!?!?" after my repeated asking him what he was mumbling.

Which lead to a realisation: If the same bad stuff happens everywhere you go, you're the problem.

[PepperElf]

Ever get people that are either using a lisp or accent, and when you ask or say what you think their saying, they get mad at YOU for not listening to them correctly in the first place?

Yes. OMG yes.

One of my old sucky supervisors... English was his second language I think (Tagalog his first).

Now... I'm use to Filepeno accents. They were *extremely* abundant there... (I'd say I've probably been exposed to varying accents for over 10 years of working there)

But... with Sucky, his English wasn't accented as much as it was mumbled. If he didn't know how to pronounce something he just mumbled it... and on top of that he'd often try talking to me when he was facing *away* from me.

Yet. It was my fault that I'd have to ask him to repeat himself. He'd usually yell at me to "Open your ears!"

Needless to say... he didn't much like my "attitude". My attitude of telling him to 1) Enunciate, 2) stop mumbling, and 3) try taking facing me. (Though part of that was also because I wasn't as subservient as he'd like)