Howdy Partner

Try saying that in your best Texan accent....

I read in the paper this morning that call centres in India will stop having their employees use a variety of different English accents when answering calls.

In the past, a call centre employee would learn an accent, say a southern US accent. So instead of answering the phone with an Apu-like accent, a smooth "Howdy Partner" would be used. I'm probably stereotyping a bit with the word usage...do people really say that in Texas?

Have you ever been talking to someone at a call centre and then asked where they were from? It used to be that employees could not divulge their location. Now they are able to say, "I'm in Bangalore," or wherever they might be.

Not that I talk to call centres all that often, but it makes me wonder if I thought I was speaking to an Canadian in New Brunswick when really I was speaking to an Indian in Gurgaon.