Amazon and the American Influence.

I tried to order an Amazon gift card for Mel’s birthday today, and didn’t their website just play me up something rotten! Never mind the details, the bottom line is that I spent half an hour talking to a young woman in an Indian call centre trying to sort out the problem. And here’s the interesting bit:

She must have learned her English from an American source because there was a distinctly American undertone in her accent. (For example, she pronounced the Rs in the middle of words like Birmingham. We don’t do that, we just elongate the preceding syllable. The only English people who do that are natives of Burnley. True, believe it or not. And some Scots do it as well.)

Now, American accents I have no problem with, and Indian accents I can usually cope with, but an Indian accent with a distinct American undertone takes some getting used to. It does.

Still, I did get my refund eventually. Now all I have to do is try again.