I was in a store today, and the English-speaking clerk had a woman on the phone yell "SPEAK ENGLISH"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

The clerk is a very nice, middle-aged Filipino woman. She absolutely has a very noticeable accent but every word she speaks is 100% crystal-clear English.

The person calling while I stood at the register waiting to pay for my purchase had her go look in the store for an item. She came back and told the woman she didn't have it and the woman yelled "SPEAK ENGLISH" and she very politely replied "M'am, I DO speak English, but I'll transfer your call."

When she did, I asked "Was she rude to you?" and she replied "She told me to speak English!" and I said "That's what I was hearing! ENGLISH!"

She laughed and I said "Have a great evening and forget about her." She thanked me as I paid for my purchase, and I left.

What the hell is WRONG with people?

[HipChick]

1. I speak the Queen's english

and people have problems understanding me...I find if people hear any type of accent, they stop trying to listen..

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. I work with U.S.-based programmers of Indian descent...

...and my main guy knows me well enough by now to know when he's left me in the dust. But the road to that undertanding didn;t begin with me insulting him. It began with a bit of discomfort and awkwardness on my part as I admitted, honestly and without an attitude, that I didn't catch what was just said to me. We work around it...leaning more on E-mail (no issues there whatsoever), and I fully realize that he may be thinking the same thing when he hears MY accent..."I can't understand a word this guy is saying."

But there was never a single moment in which I showed him disrespect.

:patriot:

[AmyDeLune]

4. My college French teacher...

would tell us about her linguistic misadventures of the time she spent in France...a twelve egg omelette for example. She made a little cash on the side tutoring a couple of French girls in English. They had trouble with her American accent until one day she jokingly spoke with a British accent. The girls looked at her in amazement and asked if she could talk like that all the time because with that accent they could understand her English perfectly!

[conscious evolution]

7. when I was learning Italian

I was told I was easier to understand if I spoke Italian with a new yorker accent.

[blueamy66]

8. I work with many Indians

and there is only one whom I cannot understand. It sucks.

And the Vietnamese sergeant kicking us out of jail last Sunday really sucked. Dude, I wanna go home. Learn fucking English. I swear, everyone had to say "what" at least 3 times while he was interviewing us.

[Chellee]

3. Not all loud people are horrible,

but all horrible people are loud.

Somehow, they're under the impression that when they don't have a point they can camouflage that by being really emphatic.

[rkennedy_68]

5. Just Rude!

[Mopar151]

6. No tolerance, caller speaks English poorly

Or poor hearing. Some strong accents are hard to understand with a hearing loss - typical hearing loss loses more in the higher frequencies. Some accents - like Indian English - are difficult with this. And then there are guys like N-, who I used to work with - His English wasn;t good, but he mumbled bad in Spanish, too.
Some of the Maine accents on American Loggers are so thick they are subtitled. And French-Canadian milltown English would confuse anyone not used to it - most of the words are English, sentence structure is kind of French "Throw the horse over the fence some hay." is a common example. And the figures of speech are just crazy, but they kind of work: "Spread out the prints, side by each dere, and look where dey don't agree!"

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. Kind of a reverse take on Nicole Sullivan's Mad TV 'Vancome Lady' character.

Cosmetics Clerk (to Customer #3, the Hispanic woman): Hi! Welcome to Vancome. How may I help you?

Customer #3 (with a Hispanic accent): Yes, thank you. I would like to look at your different colors of blanche. I have a party to go to...

Cosmetics Clerk (cutting her off): OK, ma'am, ma'am, I'm sorry; I don't understand your accent.

Customer #3: I said, I have a party to go to...

Cosmetics Clerk: OK, ma'am, ma'am, we speak English at Vancome. English!

Customer #3: But I am speaking English!

Cosmetics Clerk (sighing): Yeah, no, you're gonna have to go now.

Customer #3: Excuse me, you're being very rude...

Cosmetics Clerk (drowning out Customer #3, who continues to speak): Va mousse (sic?), por favor, thank you, bye bye. I can't understand you! La la la la! La la la la!

[qb]

10. I was so happy to graduate from college and get away from all of the freaks

whining about the teaching assistants' accents. It really takes very little time to acclimate yourself to an unfamiliar accent.