How are we at listening?
Jul 18, 2008 Uncategorized
Just got off the phone with a telemarketer. It went something like this:
Me: Hellooo?
Telemarketer: Hello. Is this Noelle? (Pronounced like “The FIrst Noel”)
Me: Nope. This is Noel.
Telemarketer: Hi, Noelle…
Me: I’m sorry…it’s “Noel.”
Telemarketer: Excuse me?
Me: It’s “Noel.”
Telemarketer: I’m sorry, Mr. Noelle….blah blah blah…
I couldn’t hear anything after that point because she was so focused on her script that she didn’t realize she was mispronouncing my name and obviously I cared about it.
How often do we do that to people in everyday or business conversation? We are so focused on what we want to say that we miss what the other person is saying.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Maybe English isn’t her primary language…
July 18th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
people in general “what’s you’re name?”
me “Randi-Kay”
people “oh, hi Randi, it’s nice to meet you”
me “no. it’s Randi-Kay”
people “randi?”
Me “no. Ran.deee.kayyy.”
people “can i just call you Randi?”
Me “i guess. but Randi-Kay is my first name, not my first and last”
Sometimes I wonder why it’s SO hard to understand my name.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Thanks for sympathizing with me, Randy.
July 18th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Ha… try “Millard Arthur”; people assume I didn’t like my first but they stopped calling me by it 29 years ago when my grandpa Art died. But I hear mallard, miller, even an occasional mildred! My little bro was named Millard so there’s no going back for me… hey, have you seen this one? http://youtube.com/watch?v=Md4g1M_xWXY
July 18th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
i’m punching you the next time i see you. YOU were one of the MANY who can’t seem to understand something soooo simple.
July 18th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Randy, Randy, Randy…
Why would you punch Mildred?
July 18th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
keep em comin noel. “keep messin with the bull and son you’re gonna get the horns” (name the movie quote”
July 19th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Breakfast Club.
July 19th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
nice… except i quoted it wrong. whoops.
July 19th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I have a different problem. My full name is James Roger, but my parents intended me to be Roger. I am happy to be Roger and not Junior (My Dad was James, Jim, or Jimmy, depending on who was talking to him). I am not any of those, but try telling a telemarketer who has James on his sheet or a computer program that is set up for first name, middle initial, last name, or for that matter a first grade teacher. Fortunately, I wasn’t a shy kid!
For some things, just to defy the machine, I put JamesRoger in the first name space. I haven’t had a telemarketer try to deal with that yet, mostly because I don’t answer phone numbers I don’t recognize.
As for listening, it’s nearly a lost art. For example, what is a good communicator? It’s someone who talks well. In my book, it begins by being someone who listens well. Why do I care what someone who doesn’t listen has to say, any way?
July 20th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I hear that Roger, but I was so oblivious to the middle-initial-mandate that I wrote my middle name as my first up through the end of elementary school.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:25 am
I feel your pain Roger. I started signing everything W. Joel in high school to try to head off the confusion early, but I still get lots of calls asking for William Smith. The good thing is, it’s an instant tell that the caller doesn’t know me if they call me William, so that’s handy.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:29 am
Noel, I sympathize with you too, sorta…my name ideally should rhyme with yours, and most people pronounce Joel that way, unless they were purposely trying to annoy me. I got a lot of “The Firrrrrst Joe-elllll…” teases when I was little. I always thought Joe-el sounded like a French prostitute. I’m not sure how I knew what a French prostitute was when I was like six…I guess I watched a lot of TV.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:50 am
I’m feeling all of you! My last name is Surbrook - pronounced sir-brook. (Really not too bad) But, I get SHURE Brook, Sunbrook, Sherbert and all sorts of weird pronounciations and and even stranger spellings on my junk mail!