OT: Off shore call center workers mad at American

[Grandpa Kim]

From AgentZero

'I was just talking to so-and-so and I couldn't understand a word she was saying' and I'd be sitting there thinking, 'Funny, I can understand her perfectly.'

Another factor is familiarity and consistency. When I was in high school I worked summers painting houses. Most of the crew were Italian immigrants. It took me about two days to get with the program, after that I could understand them perfectly. One summer we had a Scot from deep in the highlands. I could understand the Italians perfectly, but when he spoke it might as well have been Swahili for all the sense I could make of it. I just couldn't shift gears fast enough. If we spoke for a short time one on one I would quickly "learn" his language, but in a group he was
incomprehensible.

Keep in mind this was all face to face; over the phone is at least three times harder.

[General Woundwort]

I often wonder how people who aren't born and raised in English ever come to understand and write it. Most of my bad memories of elementary and middle school are of English classes - as in learning the rule, and then the 10,000 exceptions to that rule...

[luke_slovakian]

Well i speak a couple langauges fleuntly myself. English being my third. And i have to agree they can not speak proper English, it gets sooo annoying. And I liked the guys story from page one, where the Euro chick helped him out in like 10 minutes.(Aren't we Euros smart ).