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ESLs & Politeness - Angie

Posted: Jun 05, 2013

Currently I'm working with more ESLs than ever before. Just curious who you find the most polite? The East Indian dictators are pretty easy to understand once you get used to their emphasis on different sylabels. I also find them the most polite dictators, with many "sorry's" and "thank you's". I have one who must not know that humans edit him as he is afraid to leave dead air space. As he is thinking he dictates: "um, thinking...thinking... so sorry... still dictating...dictating.. hold on ... hold on". He always ends each dictation with "thank you, thank you very much." Those kind of dictators can at least put a smile on my face in a gloomy era of our profession.

I prefer Indian dictators. - (shhh)

[ In Reply To ..]
I find them to be the most polite.

I just told my husband the other day that they're also easier for me to understand, because they enunciate much better than American doctors.

It seems like American doctors expect you to understand their mumbling, but for ESL doctors, sometimes they're more conscious of the way they speak and it can be really helpful.

They are more polite than Americans in general - my opinion

[ In Reply To ..]
I agree, in my reports an ESL (usually East Indian) is much nicer, apologetic when making a mistake, and trying his best to pronounce everything clearly or spell it. I don't believe I have ever had one eat while dictating.

It isn't just the MT world though. I mentioned to my husband not long ago how in my area (the south) many East Indian people own stores and many Americans will say they won't shop there, because they are "supporting America" but I definitely will shop there because I find their "customer service" skills to be so much higher than most. I can go to an American-owned store and ask if they have something and maybe be told no or "I don't know" with the person barely paying attention or looking. I have been to stores owned by East Indians and if they didn't have something I wanted, they ORDERED it for me, no lie! It hasn't been one occasion, but many! They also recognize me when I come in, are friendly and personable, I just prefer it.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying all American-owned companies are rude, just MY experience in MY area.

that's been my experience, too. I have nothing - against foreign doctors...its the MTs. NM

[ In Reply To ..]
truth be told.

I agree. East Indians are careful and consistent and do better with VR in the long run. - Angie

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.

I agree - sm

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Nothing makes me happier than a thank you at the end. Even when they have such a hard time putting an "English" sentence together, just that thank you at the end makes me smile and I'm happy that I fixed their grammar for them. When my husband is home and he happens to hear me, he always says "what?" from the other room when I say "you're welcome" to the dictator and I say nothin' honey! :)

Politeness - Old Pro

[ In Reply To ..]
The great majority of ESLs that I had were extremely polite and wanted to do the right thing. The same was true of the native speakers of English. You always have a few people of any group who want to give you a hard time, but by and large, I was lucky. I think the hardest to transcribe for me were the Chinese docs. They were as nice as pie, extremely polite, but really tough to understand. I have to say that the only time in 40 years that I heard the F-bomb dropped was by a native English speaker, who said it three times in one dictation. I was shocked that he would use that kind of language at work and wondered if he talked that way to his patients.

I had to laugh tonight... - Angie

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I was editing a very polite East Indian MD tonight. He was having difficulty finding a piece of information. He tapped on the phone several times saying "Is it off"? then, thinking it was off flipped through the chart and said "Oh Sheet!"

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