Sometimes I find it takes people a little while to figure out my accent. This is more of a problem on the phone. People are expecting to talk to a Kiwi (or maybe a Britt) but not a Canadian. So often I make my first sentence longer than it needs to be. Like my name is Susan McMillan and I was just calling to speak with ****, or something like that. Well, unless the person knows me, in which case I don't have to introduce myself at all cause they know who it is as soon as they hear my accent. I am getting MUCH better at understanding Kiwis on the phone and rarely have to ask them to repeat themselves.
I did run into a problem on the phone the other day when I called Telecom because I was having a problem with my home phone. Their help line is automated with voice recognition. They ask you what your problem is and then to answer a few short questions to automatically direct you to the correct person. I was doing pretty good until they asked me if I had tried a certain test on my phone, to which I replied "no".
"I'm sorry your answer was not understood. Have you tried this test?"
"No."
"I'm sorry your answer was not understood. Have you tried this test?"
"No."
"I'm sorry your answer was not understood. Have you tried this test?"
At which point I figured out that it couldn't understand my accent. Kiwis say "no" like it's a two syllable word, something that I can't manage to do. I started to laugh, which apparently was good enough to get my transferred directly to a real person.
Oh, it can be rough being a foreigner.
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