Search results for 'tag:Articles tag:Accents' matching tags 'Articles' and 'Accents'

When a Smile is not a Smile

mindatrisk — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:30:24 GMT

Hello, this is an article that I have written to promote some theory that I have written, I know it is quite long, but if anyone could check my grammar and punctuation then I would be very grateful. I am most concerned about the second paragraph. Thank you.

..

When a smile is not a smile â¦

â¦ A customer that seems to be cared about is not the same as a customer that is cared about.

Herein lies your biggest problem. You want the customer service consultant that really does care about your customers. You want the customer service consultant that will sprint the extra mile, preferably shoe laces tied up, but more than willing to trip up in making the effort. You want the customer service consultant that, when the customer is satisfied, is plucking the cherry that makes them delighted.

This is the customer service consultant that sees a human being, and not just a cardboard cut-out customerâ¦ that sees a human being who craves peace of mind, and not just someone to make money fromâ¦ that sees that delivering them peace of mind is the best way to make money from them, and with the customers abiding blessings. These are the customer service consultants that you want. And these are the customer service consultants that you rarely get.

Except â¦

â¦ you do already have them.

Climb atop of your desk (it looks grand and health and safety is overrated anyway) and cast your gaze across the room. You donât see it, and for some reason they donât either. But your workforce - every last one of them - actually really does care about your customers. They care a lot. But they have forgotten, so now they must be reminded. For their good, for your good and for the customers good.

This should be music to your ears. It is vital, vital, vital for your business that your customers are cared about. But how to make your consultants care? You could cc them into a warm fuzzy, but this will work against you as much as for you. You can tie a bulging bonus to a piece of string and hope that they play chase, but on a cold Monday morning with three months until that quarterly bonus and a screaming customer on the line this probably isnât the incentive to transform the moment into a customer care heaven scene. You could even Go TotalitarianÂ© and attach electrodes to their nipples, but then youâd have to relocate east, and we all know how customers feel about foreign contact centres.

The thing is, none of this can make them care about the customer. Instead they push, shove and drag themselves into as much pleasantry as they can summon to try to seem like they care, then get stressed under the pressure of pretending to be what they do not feel for nine hours and leave their job mid-shift on a âtoilet breakââ¦ Not good for business. Your consultants need to care, so how?

Well â¦

â¦ Human beings are naturally altruistic.

Most of us do what we can when we can for other people. Many endeavour to do volunteer work with the most vulnerable in our society. Why? Because it makes us feel good. Altruism is enjoyable. Serving other human beings is enjoyable. Now, if serving other people makes us feel so good about ourselves then why on Godâs concrete Earth is the customer SERVICE sector not populated by the shiniest happiest people in all the land? I mean, these are people who get to serve other people ALL DAY LONGâ¦ and get paid! Those early morning birds / cars that wake us from our slumber should be greeted with a fairytale smile and twinkle in the eye at the prospect of nine whole hours at the call centre! âCall centre work rules!â should be graffiti scrawled across red-brick campus wallsâ¦ But it isnât. Why not? No, seriously, why not? A bit of help hereâ¦ Please?

Okay, so I am not quite sure why it is that temples arenât erected in honour of customer service, but I do know that, at least metaphorically, it is a very real possibility. We have the ingredients cut neatly on the faux marble work surface, and now we have our super-food in altruism that is going to bind and nourish this recipe.

Because â¦

â¦ Your staff do care about your customers.

They care because they are human beings who care about other human beings and enjoy caring about other human beings. And to be quite frank (but still Richard), very few of us do justice to how much we care when interacting with others. What is needed most of the time is just that little dash of awareness to bring out our altruistic flavours. You see, awareness leads us to empathy, and empathy finds a nature within us that is worlds apart from ourselves sans awareness.

For a heavy but clarifying example, if we knew that a loved one were to die tomorrow then there would be very little that they could do to upset or anger usâ¦ and yet, we do not know that a loved one will not die tomorrow. So, what gives? Simply put, what gives is that we just do not think about that. If we did then our compassionate nature would flourish and accord instinctively, but we donât and so we donât.

Letâs think about the customer. It is well documented that there is a certain breed of customer out there in the capitalist wilds that have been observed and classified (even tagged) as âdifficultâ. They are the ones that do not grasp that, maybe just maybe, the problem that they have most likely did not originate with yourselves, and that you are just the unfortunates with a target white tacked to your forehead. But this does not matter! This flight is under your control! Because, with that liberal sprinkle of awareness, you will see beyond your prevailing perception that, actually, this customer, like all human beings, probably has a very good reason for sharing their complete and utter disregard with you, and if you knew that reason (money problems, depression, abuse, tight trousers etc. etc.) then you would most likely feel compassion for the customer and really want to help them outâ¦ because you are human and you know what it is to hurt and you do care when other human beings hurt too.

Customer service â¦

â¦ is just human interaction.

And like any human interaction it can a be stimulating, meaningful, rewarding and educating experience. It is ludicrous like a hamster tasting tomato or a square shaped circle or tomorrow being yesterday and today for contact centre work to be considered mundane, repetitive and unsatisfying workâ¦ Ludicrous, I say! This work is river-bed rich in opportunity for growth through a constant and varied interaction with other peopleâ¦ a variety of interaction that is unique to customer care. An obnoxious customer may test your patience, or your tolerance may be spread nano thin by a customers heavy regional accent, but each is a challenge that can be embraced as a remarkable opportunity to learn and grow and express yourselves as human beings who really do careâ¦ Not just to become an ace hot-shot customer service consultant, and not even just because you will enjoy more harmonious and supportive relationships, but most of all because â¦

â¦ You Will Be Happy.

Lest I forget that this here article has been written to promote my training program, it goes without saying - even though I am going to say it - that this will be FANTASTIC for business. Perhaps even more so than I dare to believe at the moment, what with me being such a young upstart armed with a hat rack full of paradigm busting, evolutionary catalysing ideas, and all.

What I do is simpleâ¦ I gently wake people up. A little nudge here and a metaphorical Clockwork Orange eye opener there, until that natural vein of empathy is tapped and an expanded awareness is buckled in, and all of a sudden your consultants are charmed and honoured to be talking to even the most profound hell raising customerâ¦ I mean, we are talking about another human being here, devil horns or polished halo, this is an incomprehensibly unique individual who deserves the happiness that we too pursue, and you know what, maybe our happiness is invested in our desire to deliver them their happiness? I wouldnât be the first crazy to propose that maybe, just maybe, happiness has something to do with love, and not 6 digits in the fools gold account.

I am the perspective engineer that turns your thinking inside out until your customer nightmares are embraced as divine opportunities to practice and develop qualities like patience and tolerance which in turn make your customer service even betterâ¦ Genius! You get the consultants that your dreams dare not allocate space for, with customers who stall in their rant tracks in case this is actually the Dalai Lama answering their complaint, in a working environment that will have your staff wondering whether the golden age of peace and love is to begin in the humble call centre.

However, my motivation is not, and never will be, to make you more moneyâ¦ conversely, it is exactly that which will make you more successful than maybe even your calculator allows for.

The truth is that the insightful company who recognises that compassion and altruism and all other such nice, heart warming, picnic scene feelings are the key to customer care is the company that is going to be heralded as a visionary. If that company is yours, and you see the potential wonderfulness in what I have to offer, with the chance to cast yourselves in the non-fluorescent light of a pioneering and compassionate company; explorers in new directions and methods to attain excellence for the hallowed customer, whilst shattering the Made in Another EraÂ© mould and reassembling the pieces to form a new and vibrant era in mature and humanist customer care and employee regard, thenâ¦ HIRE ME! Or you could just ask for more informationâ¦

Here I amâ¦ Contact me!

Email: <removed by mod. Please include your contact details in your profile, if you want other members to contact you.>

Phone: <removed.>

Thank you for reading, it has been a pleasure having you read these words. And remember that, with thinkingâ¦. there is no box.

About the authorâ¦.

I am Richard Horrocks. I am a pioneering spirit with a passion for serving all human beings. I am here to deliver progressive and multi-dimensional ideas to those corners and shadows where they are most neededâ¦. The freshest ideas since âMilk-from-the-udder-Shakesâ.

Re: Want to improve my english writing and speaking skills

viveksp23 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:40:08 GMT

hello Ahmed , i would like give my opinion towards your improvement of English.

you can improve it by studying studying several books for grammer etc,.

one of them i know is by reading the book "word power made easy", the starting pages of the book contains how to talk about several topics in different fields which gives u a general idea of What is language , vocabulary etc,. By reading this book twice and trice you will be trained on foriegn accent and i hope you will no longer feel defiency of words for speaking fluent english. the book may cost you around 3$.And to run more faster some of good news articles and magazines will solve your purpose.

one good book in preparing grammer is wren-en-martien's English grammer.

have a nice day.
Vivek

Re: Is it compulsory to use articles, a, an, and the, with only countable nouns?

Ant_222 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:01:56 GMT

Yes, the definite article can be used with nouns of both types, "Pour the water onto the tea" â "water" and "tea" are pure uncountable nouns.

Jackson6612
I have been told that the accent of Russian is such that Russians have to struggle a lot in order to speak good English. Is it true?

I don't think so. Maybe we have to struggle a bit to learn toÂ pronounceÂ some sounds, but once grasped, it is not difficult at all.

Re: Is it compulsory to use articles, a, an, and the, with only countable nouns?

Jackson6612 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:44:11 GMT

Ant_222
Jackson6612
Let me rephrase it again, even indefinite article the is used with countable nouns or the nouns which are acting as counting nouns.

What's "indefinite article the"?
Sorry, I meant to say definite article. As the meaning of my question stands corrected now, what is your answer?

I have been told that the accent of Russian is such that Russians have to struggle a lot in order to speak good English. Is it true?

Re: Native-speaker/native language

Tanit — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:03:57 GMT

Forbes

I remember listening to a radio programme about the varieties of forms of speech in Italy ... They simply change language like they change clothes without worrying about the status of their "home" speech.

There's some truth in that article. My parents, for instance, used to speak in Sardinian (not a dialect, but recognised as an endangered language by the UNESCO) when talking to each other or to their relatives, but they would only speak Italian with my brother and me. I grew up monolingual, and although I can understand Sardinian, I am unable to articulate a sentence that contains more than a few words!

Many people who speak both Italian and their dialect, although able to switch from the first to the second depending on the context, speak a form of Italian that I would classify as regional and sub-standard. I noticed that people from Southern Italy (I have little experience of Northern Italy) who speak also a dialect usually don't speak standard Italian, but a form of language deeply affected by their dialect. Accent is not an issue. I find some grammatical structures odd, as well as the choice of some verb modes, tenses and aspects (ex. past simple versus present perfect, indicative versus subjunctive), and have problems with some vocabulary (let alone idioms, of course). I am usually able to understand the general meaning, though.

Re: Canadians and their English

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:56:02 GMT

Well, you are supposed to write about the *new* trends in Canadian English. Not the history of CE. I think that the Canadian Shift would probably be your best bet--it is a very recent innovation, and thus is one of the few features of CE that could be considered new. It also has many interesting Sociolinguistic variables associated with it--for example, young women are leading the change, whereas males, older women, and young children are much more conservative. You could include information on the early interviews--e.g. where they first discovered it. It is also interesting because this shift moves the vowels in the opposite direction from that of the Inland North dialect in the US. The Canadian Shift also affects some speakers in the Western US. There is also a related shift in California as well that contains many of the same features. The Canadian shift is thought to be triggered by the cot-caught merger. This is because, the merger of "cot" and "caught" leaves a hole in the vowel system, and many other vowels have to move around to maximize the difference between them. The cot-caught merger is an innovation in certain North American dialects. What is does is to cause speakers that have it to make no distinction between the vowels in words such as "cot" and "caught", or "bot" and "bought" or "tot" and "taught". They still have both vowels, but they apply them indiscriminately to those words: so if they were speaking to someone without the merger, and they said the word "cot" the non-merged individual would sometimes think that they were saying "cot" and at other times think they were saying "caught". Fortunately this rarely causes confusion, because most of the words are not able to be confused: e.g. because of context, it's impossible to confuse the words "cot" and "caught". The c-c merger is one of the mergers that is an innovation in North American English. It affects all of Canada. It is unknown exactly why. One hypothosis was that it was imported from Pennsylvania (which also has some c-c merged individuals). The merger is also universal in the Western US. The Midwest however, is predominately unmerged--most Midwesterners still have a distinction between those vowels. Several decades ago, there was no such thing as the c-c merger, but since then it has spread to cover a large section of North America. However, due to the configuration of vowels in other dialects, such as in much of the Midwest, it is unlikely to spread to those areas. This means, that crossing the border in many places between the US and Canada will immediately change dialects. The most extreme case is that between Detroit (US), and Windsor (Canada). Although they are so close geographically, the accent changes immediately, with no transitional area right at the border. Detroit is affected by the Northern Cities vowel shift, which is triggered by the fact that the "a" in "cat" is raised and is diphthongized. Detroit is completely c-c unmerged as well. Windsor is completely merged. The Northern Cities vowel shift (US) shifts many vowels in opposite directions as that of the Canadian shift. Thus the word "mop" in Detroit, sounds like how someone from Windsor would say "map". I even remember reading someones blog (that was from Windsor), and what happened when they asked for a "map" in Detroit. Just a few decades ago, when neither shift existed, this confusion would be impossible. You can read more about the Canadian shift, by going to Wikipedia. Go the the article on the English Wikipedia entitled "Canadian English", and find the section called the Canadian Shift. It then links to an article that contains a technical description of the shift. In fact this is one of the only places on the internet that contains info on the shift. And because it is such a recent innovation there are very few books on it. Then check out the Bibliography in that Wikipedia article. Then if you go to scholar.google.com you can type in the Bibliography items and in many case read the full text of the actual studies on the CVS!

What about my accent ? Listen and comment please :)

Chris001 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:00:17 GMT

Hi,
Although I know my English is poor, I would like you to listen to my recording and tell me how do you find my accent and whether this what I was talking about is understandable at all. I was trying to speak as I normally do, at school, while meeting somebody - not writing on some piece of paper what Im going to say or whatever Just tell me whether it is understandable for a native English speaker (or just a person learning English), cause I have no opportunity to go to Britain or any other English-speaking country in case of talking with some natives.
It is about this article http://www.simpleenglishnews.com/21666holmes.shtml

Here is the recording
http://chris001.patrz.pl

Thanks in advance friends,
Chris.

Re: What do you think about the AAT Accent program?

Kooyeen — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 14:56:09 GMT

Hi Feathers,
yes, she probably say that. You know, I didn't read it all and learned it by heart, I just tried to remember the most important things and see if I recognize some of those featuers in Americans' speech. For example, I didn't try any of those exercises with the rubber band... I still have tons of doubts about the stress in sentences, but I don't think Ann explained it completely. I mean, she spend a lot of time trying to teach where the stress goes, but she doesn't mention where to put the stress in common structures (for example: negative sentences, sentences with particles like only, also, already, etc.)
I hope I'll learn that over time, as soon as possible.

Re: Learn various accents/dialects

Saska — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:44:28 GMT

You should find this wiki article on British English accents and dialects useful
Yep, already finished that one yesterday.

I don't know how many different English accents there are. Some areas have their own accent and even some cities/towns have their own accent.
I thought you only had a few. Like I said I suck at accents. I don't even know what accents we have here where I live! So what are the major accents? And how can I distinguish them from eachother?

Scottish (two t's) - again there isn't a single Scottish accent.
Well you learn something new every day. I honestly though that in Scotland, there was one accent and it was Scottish. Proved me wrong, which I noticed when browsing this site for 3 hours during my all nighters, http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/scotland . There are indeed several scottish accents.

I haven't noticed my Scottish friends doing this?
Like I said I know basicly nothing about accents but this,I am positive about. I've heard it a few times before. I don't know from where in Scotland the people were from but I'm positive they had those traits when speaking.

To be honest, what you are saying here sounds more like an Irish accent to me than Scottish?
I have no idea how Irish sounds. :O Anywhere I can listen to it?

Thank you nona the brit for your reply.

Bldudas: thanks so much. I'll def. check them out. I've been staying up all night browsing the web for sites that can help me.

You cannot recognise US accents? Where are the people from you hear? You should be able to recognise New York and Boston. Maybe not Philadelphia.
Well, I might recognize that the accent is a US one, but not anything more specific than that. The american accent is the easiest to recognize. I'm having a hard time telling the difference between for example Australian Eng and Brit Eng. I can't even tell the difference. And Scottish, I don't even understand what they're saying. I watched "Green Street Hooligans" (lovely lovely film) but I didn't understand half of what they were saying, same goes with "This is England". No idea what accent they had in that film, but it must have been a scottish one (?) cause I did not understand much.

I can guarantee you that I do not recognize New York/Boston/Philly accents. I only know of the "regular" american accent and the southern one. That are all american accents that exists for me, unfortunately.

I know they roll r's, which is one reason why I cannot understand them.
I just LOVE the scottish accent, but I can't understand a dime. What does "rolling" something means? Rolling r's?

You are from Philly? Do you know of West Chester? How does a Philadelphian accent sound like?

Thank you for the reply!

EDIT: I also wanted to ask if there is any way of finding out what accent I have? I have absolutely no idea and I feel like it's a mixture between several accents. Is there anything I can do in order to find out what accent I have? I spotted this website but it doesnt make much sense to me: http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/scotland/selkirk/

Re: Learn various accents/dialects

nona the brit — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 08:08:28 GMT

accent: a way of speaking typical of a particular group of people and especially of the natives or residents of a region

dialect: a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language

Dialects need a greater variation from the 'standard' or other varieties, whereas accent is more about pronounciation.

You should find this wiki article on British English accents and dialects useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English

I'd disagree that RP is the standard English accent - only about 2% of us speak it. And certainly the other dialects did not develop from RP - they developed over hundreds if not thousands of years for a variety of reasons. For example, there is still a language difference between the areas that were ruled by the Vikings and the rest of the country. The history of English as spoken in England is a very interesting one due to the constant influence of other languages.

I don't know how many different English accents there are. Some areas have their own accent and even some cities/towns have their own accent. 'Lots' would be my best answer, although many of them can be loosely grouped together. I know someone who reckons you can tell which side of her village-street people were born on, as the accents are slightly different! She could be pulling my leg though...

Scottish (two t's) - again there isn't a single Scottish accent. Someone from Glasgow sounds different to someone from Edinburgh, for example, but there are some overall similarities. All I know is that they often do not pronounce the letter "h", so here becomes 'ere - I haven't noticed my Scottish friends doing this?,

and my becomes 'me', *** sounds like fock, up like op and so on. That's pretty much all I know. Also, is there any place online where I can listen to this accent? I don't care what I listen to, may it be a podcast, or an audio book, I really don't care, I just want to grasp the accent. To be honest, what you are saying here sounds more like an Irish accent to me than Scottish?

Also, with British accents you have to factor in class as well as geography. That makes a difference to how people speak. My Scottish friends are two sisters with quite different accents, even though they grew up together. One went to a local private school and has a posher accent than the one who went to the local state school.