[323] Learning US Accents: Clear Call Centre Conversations
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Hey amigos y amigas, you're listening to the English Made Simple Show. This is episode number 323, number 323, número 323. 🎵

Welcome back, amigos y amigas. Welcome back to today's show. It's your host, Milena, here with another episode of the English Made Simple show. Today's topic is something super practical and useful, especially if you work in customer service or a call center, or if you've ever had to speak English over the phone with somebody who has a different accent. So this could be a good episode for you, amigos y amigas. It is...

going to be slightly different to how I run my episodes normally. And just like I promised in my last episode, I'm not going to talk about AI anymore. So this time we're going to do something different. We're going to focus on a call center, how to talk to somebody when you call somebody over the phone,

Or if you work in customer service, this episode is for you. We're going to be talking about how to handle different accents, particularly northern and southern accents from the US. And there's a reason why, so keep listening.

Now, I'm quite used to the Australian accent because I live in Australia, so I know I can differentiate between different states. People speak differently. They have different accents in Queensland, for example, as opposed to people who live in Adelaide or Melbourne. Right. You'll also learn how to spell things out clearly when you're on the phone and can't hear well due to bad reception, for example, or some external noise. Right.

Oftentimes, you'll be required to spell your name, spell your address, email address, and so on. And I have something exciting for you today. So today's episode is different, as I mentioned. I recently had the pleasure of being a guest on the podcast called Not Terrindas Intermediate English. This is in Spanish. Not Terrindas means don't give up. Okay.

This podcast is hosted by the amazing duo Gabe and Goyo, okay? Two brothers. These two American brothers are all about helping Spanish speakers improve their English through fun and natural conversations, and I absolutely love their sense of humor. So I had the pleasure of being a guest on their podcast. I met both of them, and they're just absolutely fun, and I wanted to

share something from their podcast as well, from how they run their podcast. I wanted to share that on our show as well. So they've kindly shared a clip, like an audio clip for us, where they role play a common call center situation.

In the clip, they show us how to clearly spell things out over the phone using the nato phonetic alphabet. When you have a bad reception or some background noise, oftentimes, as I just mentioned, you might be required to spell your name clearly using a phonetic alphabet.

They also help us distinguish between Northern and Southern US accents. So if you live in the United States, then you might, probably you might be able to tell the difference between these two accents. But for somebody who doesn't live in the United States, you may find it hard to differentiate between Northern and Southern US accents. But these two brothers will help us out.

And I can't wait to share this clip with you. It's a short clip, like five or six minute clip. But before we get into the clip, let me give you a quick overview of what to expect, just briefly. So in the clip, you are going to hear Gabe and Goyo introduce themselves and their podcast.

And they will also do like a role play with, you know, Goyo, I believe it was Goyo, calling the call center and then Gabe responding. Okay, so you will get to hear them talk.

Whether you're in the US or Australia, you'll come across different accents that can sometimes be difficult to understand, especially over the phone. So in the US, you've got northern accents, which tend to sound a bit sharper and more direct. And then there are southern accents, which can be slower and more melodic.

In Australia, we've got our own way, unique way of speaking. For example, in Queensland, people tend to drag out their vowels like the Crocodile Dundee. Imagine Crocodile Dundee when you're watching movies or series or the late Steve Irwin, the way he used to run his shows online.

Whereas in Melbourne and Adelaide, I'd say you'll find the most natural sounding Australian accent. Okay? It almost sounds melodic. Now, Gabe and Goyo do a great job of showing how these accents can sound different in customer service situations. So that's what's going to happen in the clip. They also give us tips on how to stay calm and communicate clearly, no matter what accent you're dealing with.

Now let's play the audio clip where they role play a common call center scenario. This is a conversation between an agent and a customer where external noise is making it hard to hear. So they use the phonetic alphabet to spell out important information clearly. So throughout the audio clip, you'll also hear

hear some special effects. So they're introducing some special effects just to add to the scene, you know? So just watch out for those. You will hear some things in the background, all right? Just to make that noise and distraction happen, all right? So it's quite funny when you start to get into it and when you start listening to it. Just bear in mind that the clip is mostly in English, right?

with just a short introduction that's in Spanish. So don't worry if you don't speak Spanish, if you're not listening from any Spanish-speaking countries, just enjoy the learning experience and focus on their tips for handling different accents, okay? And as I said,

It's only a short introduction that's in Spanish. It's maybe less than a minute and the rest is in English. Alrighty, guys, let's play the audio clip from Not Terrindas Intermediate English Podcast. Hola, Gabo here with my brother Goyo and we are the hosts of the Not Terrindas Podcast. We specialize in teaching intermediate English to Spanish speakers.

Hola, soy Goyo, y hoy vamos a dar una muestra pequeña de nuestro formato, de nuestra personalidad, el estilo de nuestro show.

Y vamos a enfocarnos hoy, Gabo, en el servicio al cliente, que es una especialidad de ti. ¿No es cierto? Sí, es cierto. I work in the customer service industry at a call center as a manager over a team of agents. And one of the challenges for my agents is that we get calls from all over the United States.

So my agents hear a lot of different spoken accents. Now, I myself have a southern accent, as they say, as do many of the agents who work in my call center because of where I live.

But we also have a call center that takes calls for my company, and that call center is in Guatemala City, Guatemala. And those agents, of course, are native Spanish speakers. So when they speak English to the callers, their accent is more neutral.

Now, we, for example, we sometimes have callers from the northeastern part of the United States, and they might call what we call a water heater, a water heater. Now, hang on. So you and I would say water heater, water heater.

And they say, what a heater? Like they don't pronounce the R on the end of the word. Right. That's a typical northeastern United States thing, whether it be New England or New York. Often they drop the R's off. So they say, what a heater. Another thing they might say is they might say that they left their credit card out in the car and are going to have to call back. Yeah.

Okay, so credit card becomes credit cad, and car becomes ca, and call becomes qual. Right, right. Did I say that right? That was perfect. Okay, well, I guess I'm ready to take the train to New England then.

So you can imagine that in this environment, an environment where you might be one day as a call center English speaker, you need to be able to spell things. You might need to spell your name. You might need to spell an email address. So in the fairly recent past was invented something called the NATO phonetic alphabet or the Alpha Bravo Charlie alphabet. And this was invented.

invented to make it easier and more uniform to communicate in international environments, like when a pilot from one country is trying to land an airplane and they're speaking with airport personnel in a different country.

They're both speaking English, but they have different accents, and so they need to be able to spell to one another. And sometimes, Gabe, the signal isn't very good, so it has to be very, very clear how they're spelling things, and that's why this alphabet was invented. Right. There might be static or a break in the signal, break in the signal, or it might just generally be hard to hear the other caller. Right.

This is something that they used on the battlefield when communicating in field radios, and it certainly works well in airline communications. So it's something that's been used for a long time to be very clear which letter you're talking about.

So now we'll pretend to take a call. We'll have a mock phone call where we use the NATO phonetic alphabet. See if you can understand the email address as Goyo says them using this tool. Good afternoon, podcasting support services. This is David. Hi, David. I'm having some trouble uploading my last podcast episode using your service. Can you help me?

Yes, I can look into that for you, sir. May I have your name? Yes, my name is Goyo Sanchez. Thank you, Mr. Sanchez. And may I have your email address? Sure, it's questions at noterindaspodcast.us. I'm sorry, noterindas? How do you spell that? Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. That's not English, is it? Well, we have an English podcast for Spanish-speaking people.

So the name is partly in Spanish, but I can spell it for you. It's questions at November, Oscar, Tango, Echo, Romeo, India, November, Delta, Alpha, Sierra, podcast.us. Got it. Oh, that really helped. Thanks for spelling that out phonetically. Okay. I can use your email address to pull up your account with us. One moment. Okay.

Thanks. Okay, Mr. Sanchez, I see what the problem is. It looks like the source file that you were attempting to upload was not in an MP3 format. If you can change the format to MP3 for us, the upload should go through just fine.

Oh, okay. I think I had it as an MP4 file. That's right. That's right. So I will re-export that in MP3, and I'll get it to you right away. Okay. That sounds great. You should have no trouble uploading it once it's in the correct format. All right. Are there any other questions for me today? Nope. That's it.

Well, thank you for being a customer of podcasting support services. Have a good day, Mr. Sanchez. Bye-bye. Hey, we want to thank Milena from EnglishMadeSimple.net for giving us a chance to share our voices and perspectives with her listeners. If you'd like to learn more about the NATO phonetic alphabet, please visit EnglishMadeSimple.net and request a copy of the PDF file with the alphabet via the contact button on Milena's website.

Oh, wow. What a great clip. Thank you to Gabe and Goyo for sharing that with us. I hope you find it helpful, amigos y amigas. Let's quickly go over some of the key points from that role play that Gabe and Goyo did. So number one, they were using the phonetic alphabet when spelling words over the phone in noisy situations or when there's bad reception.

This alphabet can be a lifesaver. So instead of saying the letter S, you would say S for Sierra to make sure the person on the other end understands you. Okay, number two,

Handling accents, understanding different accents can be tricky if you're living in the US right now. But Gabe and Goyo showed how to adjust and listen carefully. With northern US accents, the speech can be a bit quicker and more direct, while southern accents might be slower and more relaxed. It's important to stay patient and not be afraid to ask the other person to repeat themselves if needed, okay?

And number three from this clip, what we've learned is some customer service tips. When dealing with a customer service situation over the phone, always stay calm and patient. Just as we heard in the clip, if you're having trouble hearing, don't hesitate to ask for clarification. And as you heard in the clip, it helps to use clear spelling and repeat important information to avoid misunderstandings.

All right, amigos y amigas, hopefully you enjoyed that. If you enjoyed that clip with Gabe and Goyo, I highly recommend you check out their podcast called No te rindas intermediate English. It's perfect for Spanish speakers who want to improve their English through real conversations and useful tips.

The brothers are super entertaining and their episodes are always packed with practical advice for learners, just as I shared with you today. Plus, it's a great way to hear more examples of American English in action. As you can tell, I don't have American accent. I also don't have Australian accent. I have my own special accent. It's really fun for me to hear these different American accents, northern and southern accents.

Now, you can easily find Gabe's and Goyo's podcast on Spotify. Just search for Noterindas, okay? Or you can find them on Instagram.

Now, if you're interested in improving your spelling over the phone or learning more about accents, be sure to download my free guide at englishmadesimple.net slash spellmyname. It will help you spell your name confidently using the phonetic alphabet so you can sound just like Gabe and Goyo. And as always, if you'd like to support the show or get a transcript of today's episode, head over to englishmadesimple.net slash transcripts. You can download all the transcripts in one convenient place and it's

It really helps me continue creating more content for you to enjoy and learn from. Thank you again to Gabe and Goyo for joining us today. And amigos, if you can't contribute right now, no worries. Just share this episode with your friends and help spread the word. Keep practicing, amigos y amigas. Stay cool and keep in touch. Until next time, hasta la proxima.