> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Charles Robinson > Sent: 11 December 2009 20:15 > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List > Subject: Re: ATT rant! > > On Dec 11, 2009, at 14:07, steve harley wrote: > > > On 2009-12-11 10:20 , Bob Sullivan wrote: > >> Subash, > >> There are some outstanding Indian science and technology > experts in this world. > >> Unfortunately, our experience over here is more often with > the call > >> center employees. > >> They speak English, but with an odd accent. > >> They introduce themselves with an English first name (Tom), but it > >> seems they are trying to decieve you into think they are > in America. > > > > no, they just don't want embarrass you; they give you a > simple name so > > you can remember it and pronounce it if you need to; tends to make > > things go more smoothly > > > > Agreed. When I was in China back in 2005, I would meet > people and they would give me their "American" names. I took > the time to ask them what their REAL names were and worked on > learning how to pronounce it. Nobody can convince me that a > child born in lower Yunnan province was named "Henry" by his parents! > >
A lot of Indian people really do have European names. Not because they work in call centres, but because of the European and Christian influence from the days of Empire. For example, I work with a lot of people who have Portuguese names because their ancestors converted to Christianity in the days when the Portuguese were a major power in the Indian Ocean. Many others have English names going back generations because of the Raj. I have worked with scores of Indian software developers onshore and offshore over the last 5-6 years and almost without exception they have been intelligent, kind, articulate and - perhaps most important when dealing with some of us - patient. It did take a while at first to get used to the accent and to some of the peculiarities of Indian English. The quality of the software they've produced for us is directly related to the quality of the specs we've given them and the timescales we've made them work to, and no better or worse than the stuff produced by locally trained and educated developers. Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
