Wednesday, March 7, 2018

What it sounds like if you call here









The phone rang. I wasn't working the phones at my library job, but our phone person was already on the phone, so, since I was loitering nearby, I answered. I greeted the caller. In response the caller said something so quiet, so mumbled, and so accented, that I couldn't even begin to interpret it.

"I'm sorry." I said. "Could you repeat that?"

The person on the other end of the line repeated at an equally unintelligible level.

"Still didn't catch that." I said regretfully. "Rough connection maybe? Could you say it a bit slower and louder?"

I don't know if it was the fact of a third repetition or that it was louder or both, but finally I was able to make out a question climbing through the haze and the accent and the mumbling. "Who is this I'm talking to?" is what it asked.

It sounded a little combative, and I thought "Wow, how confrontational!" But I roll with the punches and figure people are going to be how they're going to be. So I told her who I was and asked if I could help her.

In a friendly tone she told me who she was and how she wouldn't be in that day because of some weather related issues.

Ah, it was one of my co-workers.








No comments:

Post a Comment

If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.

I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!

One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.