Call center rant

This is Canada and in this country there are two official languages: English and French. My beef is with some of these big businesses, that have people in their call centers that answer the telephones who are not fluent enough in either language to be in that position.

I know a lot of these businesses hire immigrants and I have nothing against that.  They need jobs too.  It’s just that when you have to call a company to deal with something or get a new product or service, your interaction with the company is the person at the other end of the call. If that person that answers the telephone can’t understand what you are calling about, or can’t give you an answer that you can understand because of the communication then it complicates things. 

 Here is what I mean. This was either on Friday or Saturday of last week. The telephone started ringing so I answered it.  When I did, the person started talking, but all I could make out it was a person from Bell Canada asking me to accept a long distance call.  Unfortunately, she could not tell me where the call was from, or pronounce the name of the person who was calling. I just hung up on her. I know it’s not too polite to do that, but I figured that it would not hurt her feelings so much as me getting mad at her and giving her hell for doing the work that she was not prepared (language wise), to do.

I don’t blame that person for that, her abilities are her own.  But the person that hired her and put her in that position is responsible for getting the most out of the position. Perhaps Bell does not care whether people understand their phone operators.  That is a bad business model, but it is also their choice.  As it was my choice not to take the long distance call, and deny Bell the money from that call.  

Most immigrants are hard workers and for them to be put in that kind of position shows a disregard for those people’s feelings, because the one responsible for putting that person in that position, must have known darn well the problems that this person would encounter from the customers, especially a customer of a telephone company.

Just remember people, if you call a business and an immigrant answers and has problems explaining or understanding you, it’s not their fault. These people are working at whatever they can get and are doing their best to do the job that they have been given.

That’s my beef for today.

Animosity

From what I’ve been reading and listening to lately, the animosity against the French, especially from the Ottawa side of the river, seems to be getting worse. I would not be surprised that if things don’t change there will come a time when the employers in Ontario will decide not to hire any French person whether they be from Quebec or Ontario will not make any difference. I also think that it will be their way of saying we are tired of complaints from the French because we don’t speak their language. Can you imagine if this was to happen?

Teaching French to the English

In Canada as far as I’m concerned, and for that matter, the federal government is concerned, the two official languages are English and French. People that are not bilingual should be served in the language that they understand, but they should not refused employment because of not being bilingual.

And as much as possible, why wouldn't we teach people to be bilingual? Everyone in Canada should be bilingual.  If we are teaching things to our children, why wouldn't that be standard?  Languages are useful marketable skills, like Math or Science.  It's better to teach languages, especially the official ones, than some of the silly classes and subjects children are learning instead of these fundamental skills.

One thing I have to say about the schools that teach French. This is Canada and not France. They try and teach the real Parisian French in many parts of the country. Here we have our own dialect - the same as any other language - which is easier than the real French. More importantly, it's the French that is usable here. So why are we teaching English children Parisian French in school? It makes no sense. Teach them Canadian French.

That’s my rant of the day and if anyone is offended by that little rant, it wasn’t meant to be offensive.

Looking for trouble

I took this out of the Ottawa citizen today Saturday July 30th.

OTTAWA — Secret shoppers working for the official languages commissioner are to fan out across the capital in mid-August to test whether they can get service in French.

This is what I mean when I argue that its mostly politicians that are causing this trouble with bilingualism.  Now they are going after the private sector. I hope they find what they are looking for because if not, then we are in for a lot of mumbling about bilingualism.