Press 1 for English.
By Violette13
@Violette13 (1048)
United States
January 14, 2007 3:01pm CST
So i'm sure some people are going to get upset with me on this, but i know there are a great many of you out there that agree with me on this. Almost anytime i have to call a company of some sort, especially anything having to do with the government run systems, at the beginning of the phone call i am instructed to press 1 for English. What? why? I am in the United States, i shouldn't have to press 1 to get English speakers on the line. I wouldn't expect to go to a foreign country and expect everything to be in English or for English to be the number one language for all companies phone lines. I had this just happen to me a couple days ago again.. this and i was just reading a topic about call center jobs getting outsourced to India and other places. I tried to call the Citibank card line about a question with my card and i had the HARDEST time understanding the person on the other side of the line. I started to get rather frustrated and i tend to be very patient with call center workers because i work in call centers myself. My question though... why isn't it press 1 for any of the other languages? Don't think i'm racist or anything like that, that is not the case, but i find it frustrating that English has become the second language in a lot of things.
6 people like this
45 responses
@thewatchlist (653)
• United States
15 Jan 07
Umm, we have no official national language. As for why not some other language for pressing 1... I've had some places that just say something about pressing 9 for spanish and not mentioning pressing anything for english... defaulting to english if nothing was pressed.
I'm guessing that offering to let you press 1 just speeds up waiting for a time out on the other languages and the actual listing of the other languages. If you can hit 1 right away to skip the rest of the menu you don't have to hear about Pressing 2 for Espanol or Press 3 for Francias etc... Saves them a couple seconds, which equals money and saves you time too.
As for calling somewhere and getting a call center in far off lands... I don't know what to tell you on that. Our state government was saving cash by outsourcing their call center out. People started complaning though because of the fact that they didn't think the savings/results were worth putting local people out of work.
2 people like this
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
Now see, that makes sense when you put it like that. I hadn't thought of the fact it would actually save time for them to say that. I would love to see more call centers around where i live, we have a lot of people here that could use the work. :)
@nannacroc (4049)
•
14 Jan 07
At least you get the choice. Here in the UK so many call centres are abroad that you're lucky if you can get someone who you can understand. English appears to be becoming a second language here as well and a lot of resources are wasted on interpreters and children in school whose parents haven't bothered to teach them English.
Like you, if I moved to a foreign country I would try my best to learn the language and I think the UK and the US are going too far in accommodating foreigners who do not even have enough respect for the place they want to live to learn the language.
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
14 Jan 07
I coudn't agree with you more. :) I didn't even think about the cost of the interpreters or tutors in the schools because the parents don't teach them. I know here, a lot of the kids in school speak FAR better English than the parents do, in fact my old neighbors, the children had to translate everything for the parents. o_O
@Brooke3 (610)
•
15 Jan 07
Is it a case of pressing 1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for Italian etc.? Your post suggests that it's not but I can't see that it could be any other way, did you maybe just not hang on the line long enough ot hear press 2 for another language?
I'm not American so I don't know but I assume that it must be because why would the default language be something else. I think it's great that there's the option of having it in other languages, it's good for immigrants who have just arrived in teh country, tourists, and people who don't have English as their first language.
Would you rather that you had to wait for them to go through "press 1 for Spanish, press 2 for French etc." and then get put through to the English speaker after that? Or are you suggesting that it shouldn't be available in another language?
I sympathise about the accent thing but then I think that within the UK (where I live) it's equally as hard to understand other accents. I live in Wales but I can't understand northern Welsh accents, and strong Scottish accents get me too.
1 person likes this
@Brooke3 (610)
•
15 Jan 07
ooops, i should have read the whole thread (although i read so slowly that i would never get to post!)
Be thankful you don't live in Wales, everything here is bilingual because both English and Welsh are the official languages and I always end up pressing the wrong button on the ATM and getting the instructions in Welsh.
1 person likes this
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that i agree with you on that one, i didn't really think about the having to sit through all the other options to get to an English Speaking representative, so i can see why they do that i suppose. ;P
@rosey3223 (1566)
• United States
15 Jan 07
I completely understand your view on this, I also get frustrated...and I am not racist as well. It really bothers me when I try to talk to someone from like the Attorney General's office and I have to press a number for my language. Or when I am trying to find a job and it sounds like the perfect one that I am looking for, but they want someone that is bilingual...and that is not me. I feel that if you are coming to America, then you need to learn our language. If I was going to move to Paris I would learn theirs...or any other country for that matter...I hope you get my point. Being that I have lived in the southern United States all my life, there is an obscene amount of people that come from Mexico and they REFUSE to learn our language. And it really frustrates me how we "cater" to them. I remember when I was in high school taking spanish was a choice, but not for my oldest son who is now in the first grade, he is being forced to learn it. I don't see why we have to be forced if the other non-speaking english people are not.
1 person likes this
@rosey3223 (1566)
• United States
15 Jan 07
LoL!! I was born and raised in Tucson. Moved when I was 18 to Texas...it's been a very interesting life experience.
1 person likes this
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
I completely understand what you are talking about. I as well would not expect another country to cater to me if i were to go there, i would expect to have to learn and learn quickly a basic working grasp of their language. I spent some time in Phoenix earlier this year... i was amazed at how many people down there were as you said...
1 person likes this
@jackslaiter (371)
• India
15 Jan 07
English is not the second language but its now the number one language and believe me i am saying that and i am not an American or a Britisher. English is truely the most popular international language know by maximum people on this earth. Why we feel jealous about..there is no point to feel like that. Suppose if Phone companies say press 1 for Dutch language, what will be your reaction, would you feel much better...i don't think so. I think you would be much comfortable if option for English is first, because you know it an so does the phone companies. They know that you and max people will be comfortable with it.
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
I think you misunderstood what i was saying, i would like for English to be in the forefront when i call somewhere for an American based company. :)
@HonessT (6)
• United States
15 Jan 07
Well i don't think that English is becoming a second language by any means. Most of the world of business uses English as its main source of communication. But anyway back to the phone topic it is by no means a second language simple bec you have to press an option for it. IF i am not mistaken when u make your calls to these computer answering service it is in English from the very beginning. am i right? and if there was no option to press 1 for english could you imagine how much more frustrating it would be for you to listen to a list of alternate language option prior to getting to the information you are looking for?
1 person likes this
@remaster74 (4064)
• Greece
15 Jan 07
I know exactly what you mean. For many companies here in Greece at the call center they have the message "press one for Greek". But luckily most of the call centers they have greek spoken people.
1 person likes this
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
What language to they have in the forefront, just curios. Makes sense to that it should be Greek. o_O
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
I only requested to have English here in the US not everywhere. :)
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
15 Jan 07
i can relate to your point, inspite of being an indian and i know you are no racist!
actually, it's all to do with a bad day altogether when everything and anything goes wrong. when we are trying and doing your best things to sort things out this adds to our confusion nad irritation.
i cannot agree on you more, when u say that English has become a second language in lot of things ,and if i may add to it, first language in the countries (like ours) which supposedly have other languages as its first!!
thanx for a nice post
1 person likes this
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
I'm glad you understand i wasn't trying to be racist, thank you. :) It's merely the frustration of trying to be able to effectively communicate with an associate over the phone. :)
@itsjustmeb (1212)
• Canada
15 Jan 07
OH I hear you, and I know you aren't being racist. It gets frustrating when you are trying to trouble shoot with someone who can't understand you.
1 person likes this
@koolgalsonia (74)
• India
15 Jan 07
hey every country wil give prefernce 2 its home tongue then y u get frustrated
1 person likes this
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
My complaint is that it's starting to look more and more like it's NOT our home tongue.
@saadkhalid_ (51)
• Pakistan
15 Jan 07
Places like india, pakistan and bangladesh the 3rd world countries pay there employees a very low pay. the pay is not per hour. it is per day. overtimes are not paid. so the big multi nationals to multiply there profits simply outsourse there word load and pay the employees with pays lessen then even half of the pay that they had to pay in there own coutry..
1 person likes this
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
See i don't think that is right... They should be getting a decent wage for the work they are doing. I think it atrocious that companies do this and exploit other countries like this.
@raveemenon (1071)
• India
15 Jan 07
Your frustruation is justified. You are in your native place and is speaking native language and why do you need to press the button 1. For us in India the country you have referred to this seems like a joke because we have more than 15 official languages and we are pretty proficient in two or three at least other than English. still we also press these numbers 1,2,3,. this is not the fault of the people or the rules. We are slowly removing the boundaries of the countries. Outsourcing is also one such step . ofcourse we get irritated on these things but we have to move with the time. the unfortunate number 1 was alloted to english. it could be anything . remember the call centre is servicing customers from many countries . and the poor call centre employee doesn't know that you are from USA.
Then the the way the language is spoken, It is upto the company to redress your grievance in the matter.
1 person likes this
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
Now see, i think it would be great if the education system in the US was set up more like foreign countries. We are brought up here only knowing one language, English and then in High School we were offered Spanish and that is it. I know they offer more languages in the bigger cities but this was a school with a Senior graduating class of 46 kids. My last year there they were JUST starting to offer satellite language classes such as German and Japanese, i took the latter one.
@HighPriestess (739)
• Melbourne, Florida
15 Jan 07
Press 1 for English bothers me as well. But not as much as the fact that it takes me 30 minutes to talk to a real person if I try to call the phone company, or the cable company, or the electric company. why in the world does a person have to sit on hold listening to crappy music for so long?
1 person likes this
@Violette13 (1048)
• United States
15 Jan 07
Bwahaha... nice.. that made me laugh.. I can't stand the music that you have to listen to when you are on hold lol.. Thanks for that, needed a laugh. ;D
@TheWuzz (98)
• United States
31 Mar 07
I agree. I have come to the point to where if I can't understand the person on the other end I ask for someone else. I don't know but if the call comes from the US most will be English, France French, Spain Spanish. If their is anything that gripes my "you know what" is when I may have to wait and listen to that beautiful music anywhere up to an hour and then they put someone on you can't understand. If I do have to push the button for English I would like someone who can speak it.
They don't care about customer service anymore because most people will hang up out of frustration never to be heard from again.
1 person likes this
@mikeyr6000le (2123)
• United States
15 Jan 07
Most of the time when I have to call custoner support it's english and push 1 for spanish. I do know what it's like though waiting on hold for 30 minutes then getting someone that you can barely understand. I saw on the show 30 days how people in India that talk on the phone take special classes. They try and "talk American", by loosing their accent and talking about local stuff. Some were pretty good but others you could tell where you were calling. When I call my XM radio number 9 times out of 10 I get someone from India. I can usually understand them but it is very noisey.
1 person likes this
@xcmatx (173)
• United States
15 Jan 07
haha, yes, i know exactly what you mean. It could get really annoying, but its not racist at all. I mean, you do have a good point, this is the US. Ah, but the spanish speakers have become apart of this nation, and we do rely on them for certain things.
@Hipponater (262)
• United States
15 Jan 07
If people are going to live in the United Stats, they should be able to speak English, and have to learn how.
The US should not change for them, they should have to change like all our ancestors did back when people migrated from Europe and wherever.
1 person likes this
