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Friday, April 16, 2010

Does Rosetta Stone make a 'Bad English' tutorial?

My job...I love it immensely. But it frequently requires me to talk to people that haven't quite mastered the English language yet. I've become masterful at understanding thick Texas drawl, deep Cajun inflections from Louisiana and the Northeastern-ers 'ah' for 'r'. Canadians (my husband being one) sometimes talk fast and throw in more 'eh's than I'd care to count, But they are understandable. My Australian calls...I could listen to them all day. Occasionally I only catch half of what they say, but if you laugh when they laugh...all is well. Oddly enough I can understand the international calls from Germany, The Nehtherlands, Italy and even Japan. Thirteen years doing this, and I still have the most problems with foreign Americans.

Their accent mixed with the lack of correct grammar is baffling. The more you say "I'm sorry could you repeat that?" the more exasperated they get, and they just talk faster. I've found myself more than once doing the old 'yell and they understand you better' trick. Yeah, that doesn't work. And it gets better when they hand you off to a brother that 'speaks better English'. The sound of my phone banging on my desk mid call is an indication that their English is no better. And you know what...the vicioulsy loud banging does not even phase them.

So Rosetta Stone, if you could somehow make a CD that would teach me that porty pive is 45, and sees-yeero-sebin is really 607, I would be eternally greatful.

...and no...the laptop still isn't connected to the net...

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