Vocal Voices

I just rang Luke's GP to see if his referral to Dr Eriksson at The National had been done. Yes it was faxed and posted on 3rd Jan. Brilliant, or so I thought. I ring the number on the consultant's email, get Neurology, explain that the referral was only done on the 3rd but have they got it as it was faxed? Her reply "well it aint long is it, but I can look.....nah aint nuffink registered, ain't 'ad it"

Am I old fashioned to expect centres of excellence to have people answering the phone with decent grammar?

Not old fashioned at all Shell!!

I would be fuming at the end of that conversation!

Is that supposed to be English??

Not old fashioned at all, to expect a modicum of decent grammer on the telephon.

Shell, I'll often keep out of conversations regarding grammar and the way things are pronounced because it drives me mad and I always worry that people think I'm being a snob. I 100% agree with you - front line (esp phone front line) should be able to correctly string a sentence together and be able to pronounce the words they are meant to be pronounced.



grrrrrr

I absolutely FIZZ WITH RAGE when Pie Face Holmes says Birminam!!

It's BIRMINGHAM YOU OAF!!!!!

Calm down Al..calm down.

MM I can bet the person who spoke to you was young....I think young people accept sloppy English as the norm. I answer the phone all the time at work and would never in a million years speak to anyone like that....but I'm not young

Gal wrote:MM I can bet the person who spoke to you was young....I think young people accept sloppy English as the norm. I answer the phone all the time at work and would never in a million years speak to anyone like that....but I'm not young

You are quite right, Gal. I don't think they teach children to speak properly at many schools today.
It must be looked upon as old fashioned. At one point in my working life I was a personnel executive
and I was often asked, by acquaintances of all ages, for advice on how to conduct oneself at a job
interview. My main advice was always: "listen to yourself when you are speaking and always try
to use correct English".

Incidentally, there are now many teachers incapable of speaking correctly themselves, so what chance
do the pupils have?

Shell, that is shocking. Especially as The National is a world renowned hospital, so people will be ringing in from all over the world I would imagine - think what a terrible impression that makes

That's awful!
It doesn't matter what age they were, if their employment includes telephone calls they should jolly well be able to speak properly Nothing to do with accent/dialect is it, just basic good manners and politeness.
Whoever employed them should have taken more care.

No absolutely nothing to do with accent or dialect! I do agree with you Di, it's pure sloppiness, and bad judgement by the employers