Communication issues

I feel this pain. However, it's not just the problem of understanding the spoken word from the person I speak to, I am also quite deaf. I have worn 2 hearing aids now for 30years and yet anyone who thinks you are deaf feels the need to shout.
Sadly this is now becoming a daily occurrence for me. So I prefer to use email all the time.
When are people going to understand that they should speak clearly and slowly not gabble and mutter as most seem to do.

Most times when I receive a message via my answerphone or voicemail they speak so fast and mumble that I cannot understand them let along take the number down.

What happened to speaking slowly and clearly?

No you are not being unreasonable. It can take ages to actually get through to the person you need to speak too, and there's nothing more annoying than not being able to understand them, or get them to understand you.

I'm not deaf, and have just passed a hearing test, but I find that I'm increasingly turning to the use of subtitles (where available) on TV, in order to be able to clearly understand what is being said. Poor pronunciation, glottal stops, dropped word endings, the increasing use of "Estuary English" or "Street-speak", mumbling, garbling, or speaking far too quickly... all of these are increasingly common, and hinder effective communication. Our precious and potentially beautiful English Language is most certainly under attack.

I assume you mean foreign call centre operatives. I generally end up going via the complaints dept of various organisations I have to deal with. That is usually very straightforward in the end.

I am trying to complain to my large local branch of Tesco's about customer service and they do not appear to have a customer complaints service. The only way I could get hold of the name of the manager was by ringing the Mobile shop, and she wanted to know my name before she would give it to me. No facility that I can locate for sending an email, as I find it hard to hear now on the phone.
Apparently all the staff are far too busy helping customers to be able to take your call.
Not the one I tried to get to serve me this morning.

You can WhatsApp them eazybee on 08009177403 if you have that.

When I speak to my ISP (in UK) I say "Just explain to me as you would to your Grandmother". they then explain in clear English AND they don't patronise me. They have even helped me with problems on my computer concerned with email which is not part of their job.

Geminigran Fri 07-Jul-23 11:59:17
I feel this pain. However, it's not just the problem of understanding the spoken word from the person I speak to, I am also quite deaf. I have worn 2 hearing aids now for 30years and yet anyone who thinks you are deaf feels the need to shout.
Sadly this is now becoming a daily occurrence for me. So I prefer to use email all the time.
When are people going to understand that they should speak clearly and slowly not gabble and mutter as most seem to do.

Exactly this, I have given up using my landline completely and now rely on my iPhone with the speaker phone on, but even that is impossible sometimes because of the speed and lazy pronunciation of some people's speech.

A few years ago my very poorly and slightly deaf father was in hospital and failed to understand much of what was said to him by medics as they either had a strong accent or spoke out of his eyeline. We needed to find out if he wished to go home or remain in the hospital but the staff decided that he didn't understand because of dementia. Then one wonderful junior doctor knelt by the bed, spoke clearly to dad's ear and touched dad's arm to get his attention. Dad was then able to make a well informed decision. I told the doctor how brilliant he had been

Geminigran, another with two hearing aids. I could not agree more with you, particularly with regards to people shouting at us, thinking they only need to speak louder for us to hear. What is needed is more clarity in speech and for people to speak more slowly. I find l have to resort to lip reading on too many occasions.

In Denmark we do not use foreign call centres, as no-one in them speaks Danish, but we do have the problems you describe.

Phone communication is becoming difficult, because of the mumblers and the age gap between us and the youngsters answering the phone.

I simply, the first time I fail to hear clearly what was said, say politely, excuse me, could you speak a little slower and more distinctly ?I am having trouble hearing you clearly.

Usually, the person on the line obliges.

If I fail to understand the technical jargon, I likewise say so, apologising (it is a marvellous way to get a youngster to help, I find) for my lack of technilogical expertise.

Written communication has completely different problems these days.

Irrespective of whether you write a letter or an e-mail, people now tend to answer the first question you ask, and not bother about any subsequent queries.

Or they answer the question they thought you meant, not actually what you did ask them.

Not that this is a new thing.

In the dim and distant past when we were still all using electric typewriters (remember them?) I took mine to the repair shop four seperate times because in the middle of writing on it, the entire carriage would suddenly start juddering and shaking, so it was quite impossible to type.

Nothing I did, stopped this - you just had to wait for the typewriter to stop of its own accord.

I described the problem carefully, because naturally the typewriter wrote perfectly in the repair place. When I collected it, they insisted they had rectified the fault, but no. On the last occasion, I insisted on turning it on in the shop, and lo and behold! the carriage shook and juddered to beat the band.

"Oh, " said the repairman, "that is something completely different to what I thought the problem was." My reply was that I had minutely described this phenomenon to him no less than three times. Finally, he fixed the typewriter and it never repeated the fault.

Medical professionals, even those on geriatric wards, seem to be largely unaware that most of us experience some loss of hearing as we age. Why this fact is no longer rammed down their throats I do not know, but I attribute it to there no longer being the kind of ward sisters who scared housemen and student nurses silly!

If I can’t understand someone because they are either gabbling or have a heavy accent, I will say politely but firmly ‘I’m afraid that I can’t understand a word that you are saying. Can you please repeat it slowly and clearly’. If that doesn’t work, I will cut them short and say that I will call back later. Which I do, hoping to speak to someone I can understand! I will not waste my time trying if the company concerned aren’t aware of their deficiencies. Email is a godsend as are the automated chat lines on occasion. Don’t generally have too much trouble eventually!

When I simply couldn't, after a couple of attempts, understand what the caller was saying, I told her, in French, that I couldn't understand her. She gave up.

i have had this problem in hospitals over the last 6 years and i just say i am sorry but i am having problems understanding your accent (same as others do when i travel to england...lol), most of them would sit down and speak slower to answer my questions, one particular indian junior doctor, took the huff when i said this and told me he did not have the time for this. i have called numerous call centres and when i don't understand i say i am sorry and ask for an email address. i am from glasgow and as one comedian said, we don't talk to fast ....you just listen too slow. i always look for the contact us on there website and check for an email address before i call them, with my broadband i say to them that i am not very technical so please talk to me as if i am stupid, that usually breaks the ice and gets things done.

I have no hesitation on the phone to say I can’t understand what someone is saying. I don’t think I would face-to-face, either. It’s the least we’re entitled to!

Well glad not just me over this issue.

And the accent is so hard to understand, I had to ask an operative 3 times the other day on the 'phone (when I finally got through) to repeat themselves.

I was really polite and just said sorry can't tune into your accent.

When I was a young mum I attended the hospital with heavy periods. The doctor struggled with speaking clear English. I thought he was asking when my last baby was so I said eleven years ago. However he was asking when my last period was. You can imagine the confusion when I was there for heavy periods but hadnt had one for eleven years!

I am very conscious of this problem. Recently I have needed to ring various companies and, when you eventually manage to speak to a human being, then there is the accent to contend with, be it Scottish, Asian or wherever. I set them an example by speaking very slowly and clearly myself. It usually works!

I am currently losing sleep worrying over potential unpaid bills, because I am unaware of them! This is because my late husband had so many subscriptions. Once I know about them I contact the company and close them down, or freeze the account so no more interest is added. But when I stop accessing his emails I may never find out until the debt collectors track down the address!

This has been a bugbear of mine for sometime. Virgin have advised that I need to get in touch and get an upgraded hub so that my landline stays compatible. Getting in contact with them has been a nightmare. Understanding people when I finally do get through is almost impossible. I have explained that I'm hard of hearing and they need to speak slower. The accent is difficult to understand at the best of times. I have finally succeeded in getting someone to flag my record up that I am hard of hearing but whether this will make any difference remains to be seen.

There is a teachable skill in verbal communication on the phone, in which few are trained , even professional communicators who should know better.

I find their greatest fault is too many words presumably because they believe the use of extraneous words is polite.

Mrs, Greenfingers, part of the skill of phone communications in English is use of what is known as received pronunciation, which is certainly not local accents.

I, too, have a hearing impairment and two hearing aids. I generally put any phones on speaker but with a foreign accent I tell them I'm deaf (which doesn't make any difference) then hand the phone to my DH who hates answering the phone!

Its encouraging to find others with the same problems. I have NHS hearing aids. Getting in touch with Talktalk puts you through to someone in South Africa. Nearly impossible to understand. I am made to think I am stupid by my sons, but I do speak clearly myself.( Educated Edinburgh). The problem with TV has also reared its head since I reached senior years. I can no longer follow American shows/ films without subtitles. Practically no material from the US has these. At least, in films, one can se the actors and have a stab at understanding them but not always. Subtitles make all the difference.