This Startup Is Selling Tech to Make Call Center Workers Sound Like White Americans

Motherboard- Tech by Vice ^ | 8/24/2022 | Edward Ongweso Jr

[cgbg]

There is a “generic” midwestern accent that they use to train the mass media TV brainwashers from parts of the country with accents.

That is why you never hear hard core Boston or Queens or Deep South or even Minnesota accents in the “news” (aka propaganda) or as narrators of other “programming”.

(In America TV or mass media videos program you.)

[logi_cal869]

Absent effective & pro-American trade policies (the converse having been the legacy of Congress for decades and for which I’d like to see them all experience debilitating pain), utilizing tech which makes them intelligible would be helpful.

I could GAF if they sound like they’re from the Bronx, the ‘projects’ or the bayou.

I can’t understand Indglish. Who the hell can?

[70times7]

Call center people are not "the worst" because they are Indian or any other ethnicity. They are the worst when they do not listen, talk over the customer, and combine what can only be described as hidden distain while hitting all of the required "politeness" comments.

I went through this recently with Verizon. Kudu's to him for being able to correct the problem; his help was appreciated. I thanked him and I told him so. But we would have gotten there much sooner if the things I cited above were not so prevalent. Otoh, this software may have reduced the number of times he was unintelligible.

I have had similar experiences with a variety of customer service people on the phone. I suspect that as the "me-first" mindset expands in society, so will the wrong-headed idea that one knows the problem without listening to the symptoms.

Once I was on a customer service call and was actually told, "stop shouting sir!" (she raised her voice to say this). I calmly (and truthfully) told her, "I am not shouting. I have not raised my voice at all, not even once. You just don't like that the facts I am presenting put your company in a rather bad light, and that you probably need to fulfil my requests in order to fix this". I had to go over her head and did get it resolved; she wouldn't do it. No surprise.

[BitWielder1]

How is that not racist?
One of the best, nicest, most helpful and competent call center persons I ever dealt with was an obvious black woman.
Race is not an issue, location is not an issue, voice pitch is not an issue.
Being able to understand them, them understanding us, and getting correct information across, now those are the issues that matter.
Can the filter fix that?

[chuckee]

Bruce from Mumbai will pay all cash for your house.

[chuckee]

Bruce from Mumbai will pay all cash for your house.

[PIF]

It is a hearing problem not speaking.
—
Speak for your self - singsong speech is the major complaint against them. It is a speech problem; it is not proper English, but a variant in pronunciation and pattern. Hearing has nothing to do with it.

[T.B. Yoits]

“Can I axe you a question?”

[Disambiguator]

How about Frank Zappa?

[chuckee]

Actually, the front man for Journey for the last dozen years, Steve Perry’s replacement, is a Filipino guy they recruited from the Philippines. He’s quite good and the group still draws SRO crowds. He can’t fix my laptop but he sure can sing.

[Vaduz]

Voice sounds more like a text-to-voice reader.

Max Headroom finds now job.

[SamAdams76]

Frank Zappa is more of an acquired taste. Definitely a "white guy" act but for more discerning white guys. I would not hold it against a white guy for not being able to name a favorite Frank Zappa song anymore than I would for him not being able to name his favorite microbrew (as most white guys are just fine with Budweiser or Coors).

Most people should know "Valley Girl" however, the song he did with his daughter Moon Unit.

[metmom]

Yeah, but they cannot correct the bad grammar. That is a dead giveaway.

I like this scambaiter.

Scammer Payback - Pierogi
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC9EjyMN_hx5NdctLBx5X7w

They have created a scammer payback center to take down scammers.

[metmom]

Loved that movie!

[SamAdams76]

Yes, it is almost always those who speak most about racism who are actually the racists.

[riri]

It would help.

[OpusatFR]

Throw a colloquial phrase at them to expose the ruse

[mykroar]

Thank you, come again.

[Myrddin]

The "white voice" is a stupid label. I did lots of voice recognition apps in the early 2000s. The American Midwest English was typically what the voice rec software handles well. My app failed when the keyword "forward" was pronounced "fah wood" by a woman in Boston and "farrrr varrrd" by a Swedish male (strongly rolled 'r'). At Wingcast (Ford/Qualcomm venture), the Nuance voice rec worked great with a male midwest English speaker. Our Japanese engineers were totally frustrated. Their spoken English colored by heavy Japanese accent rarely worked with Nuance.

The Scottish voice rec elevator video takes it to the comical limit. Scottish Elevator - Voice Recognition - ELEVEN !.

[desertfreedom765]

The federal minimum wage is $7.25/hr.

Do you think that is too high?

No one in the US can afford to work at that level.