In my “Phonology & Pronunciation” class last night, my lecturer showed a video about the call centre industry in India. As you may already know, many multinational companies now have their customer service helplines being re-routed to call centres in India.
Many multinational companies, especially those from USA & UK have set up bases in India to reduce operating costs. These call centres are a huge source of employment for India’s citizens. With unemployment increasing, many fresh graduates aim to gain employment in one of these call centres. One job ad can receive thousands of applicants.
Getting a job there is however, not that simple. Many applicants do not speak English that is deemed good enough for these call centres. Before they apply for these jobs, many of the applicants actually enroll in a training school to help them speak better and get into the correct frame of mind, so to speak.

By speaking better, it means to speak with an American accent. By getting into the correct frame of mind, it means to embrace the American psyche and culture. Students are trained to speak with an American accent, with teachers going through endless rounds of vocal and pronunciation exercises. The students are also made to find out everything about America. From their lifestyle, to what they think, what they eat etc. Based on their research, students are then made to give an oral presentation to the rest of the class. One guy who voiced anti-American sentiments in class was marked down by the trainer. Since these trainers are so pro-American, what ever happened to the First Amendment and freedom of speech???
In the video, one teacher was shown telling the students to be more individualistic. She said, “In India, when we go to university, we have to ask our father, mother, uncles, aunties and cousins before we decide which course to take. But in America, when they reach 18, they decide what they want to do. We HAVE to be like them. We HAVE to be more individualistic.”
When I saw that, I was like “What??????????”. The whole thing was so pro-America that it made me want to puke. These trainers want to make these people into something they are not.
However, I don’t begrudge these India citizens who try so hard to put on a foreign accent just to get a job as times are so bad. This is a job which offers higher perks and pay than most other jobs. Hence, despite having to work at night (due to the time difference), many fresh graduates want a job in the call centre.
One trainer who’s Scottish, but speaks with an American accent (blah) said that Americans tend to be very insular and are not aware of what goes on in other parts of the world. Hence, this makes many of them rather intolerant to foreign accents. One American who was interviewed said that he has no tolerance for foreign accents and “cannot stand it”.
Ethical issues are also abound as to whether it is right to give jobs which are meant for locals (usually Americans, British or Australian citizens). Some Australians interviewed in the video voiced their disapproval to the re-routing of customer service calls to India, saying that it robs locals of their jobs. They also did not like the fact that these customer service representatives at the other end of the line were faking an Australian accent.
Many of us probably don’t think much about it, but an accent tells us very much about a person. It is one form of identity and can sometimes determine whether one’s in the in-group or out-group. Faking an accent more often than not excludes a person as people in the in-group tend to think that this person is including him/herself without being invited to do so.
Anyhow, there’s a lot more to be said on this subject of accents. The “Phonology & Pronunciation” class I’m taking addresses plenty of cultural and sometimes ethical issues which makes it all very interesting.
Well, so much for the heavy-going stuff written above. Now I shall meet some friends for dinner and head into the weekend!