Jun 5, 2015
I get this call a lot so this time I decided to listen and see what was actually going on. I had the time so I figured, why not. I'm a linguist and an English as a Second Language teacher so, if nothing else, I was interested in hearing the way they spoke and trying to see if I could guess where they were.
I first spoke to a young man with a quite thick accent. I couldn't ID his accent but his grammar was excellent.
I got the same story as those above have said. They were having some sort of grand opening party and if I attended the whole party I could talk away with two free tickets to SouthWest Airlines. Of course I knew this to be nonsense but I said 'uh huh' to all his questions to see how it would play out. He quickly passed me on to his manager. I'm not sure why. I had not agreed to anything other than to hear him out.
The manager spoke more clearly, but had a VERY usual accent that I had never heard before. I was told again about a grand opening party that I could attend to get free SouthWest tickets. When the speaker finally took a breath I interrupted and explained that I am an English teacher and that I was impressed with how well she was speaking and I wanted to know where she had learned English. Her listening skills weren't very good, however, and she told me, 'We are located right here in Richardson, TX'. Of course I did recognize the TX number, I'm from Dallas myself. I repeated my question, explaining that I was interested to know where her accent was from because I am an English teacher and I hear accents all the time but I hadn't heard one like hers but that I thought her accent was very good and beautiful.
Her whole tone of voice changed. "Ma'am! You are a teacher? I am in the Philippines. Have you been here? Do you think I speak well? Really?"
I told her I am an expert with students all over the world and, though I have not been to the Philippines, I was very impressed with her accent. I could tell she had worked very hard on her English. She thanked me with real joy in her voice.
Then she told me the party is tomorrow at 10am or 1pm. I told her I am going to the beach this weekend. She asked me about my weekdays. I told her I will be teaching, sorry, and that I am going to be traveling for a month on vacation. Then I thanked her for her time and the offer of the party and hung up.
I can't imagine what it must be like to have to call strangers and get shouted out all day so that you can feed your family. I wish her well and hope her excellent English skills get her a better job someday.