I Have A Normal American Accent-YOU Have An Accent-Don't You?

I have a Normal American accent in San Diego, CA-YOU Have An Accent-Don't You?

As one who who is always in a rush, I am famous for multi-tasking. But the other day, when I was busy with my e-mail, phone calls and sending a fax, I had accidentally spilled an entire glass of iced tea on my Modem. Yup, you guessed it. Modem=DEAD. Since it was 5 years old and needed to be replaced, I didn't feel all that badly. Since the Router was also an older model, I decided to purchase a new one. Off to the tech store. I came back to my office, set up the modem but was having problems with the Router...so I called Netgear Tech Support.

When I got a Tech Rep on the line, he had a very heavy accent, and from the sound of it I knew I was calling a foreign country. He was very knowledgeable but a bit impatient and added to the mix was an accent I had a very hard time understanding. After 30 minutes, he was getting even more impatient with me, since I couldn't understand why we had to attach the laptop to the Router since I had a "wireless" network. After he explained it was only attached for initial set up, I quickly got the hang of it. I explained to him that his accent was difficult for me to understand, which added to the confusion. He got very haughty and said "Well why is it that I can understand YOUR accent?" and I had no idea what to say. Did I have an accent? And wasn't my accent one he needed to be familiar with in his line of work? Was it up to me to decipher an accent when I paid for a product and expected intelligible tech support? Was he out of line?Or was I way out of line?

After giving this some thought I realized of course, we ALL have accents, because an accent is subjective. To my family I may not have an accent, but to someone from Britain or Texas, I do. As much as I like to think of my accent as "Normal American", I have had clients ask me what I meant when I said: "Wawduh"---- which is "water". (When I talk quickly my Boston roots come out: Have you ever heard: "Pahk the Cah in Hahvahd yahd")??


I realized that in all my political correctness, I needed to work on keeping my mind open, because clients in San Diego,CA come from everywhere and all walks of life. If we really cannot understand someone's accent, perhaps it is best to refer them to someone who can-----after all, we are dealing with legal issues and there is really no room for misunderstanding.

So thank you Tech Rep for giving me a good lesson in political correctness. Your impatience has taught me a good lesson!

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