Communication issues

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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'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.

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.

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?

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.