Hillbilly
I was talking an hour or so to this Expedia customer service guy about a flight to Spain that would initially land in Lisbon, Portgual. Which this Expedia guy kept referring to as Lizbonn — Liz Taylor plus Bonn, Germany. My irritation grew with each mispronunciation. “Look, it’s pronounced Lizbuhn…okay?,” I finally said. “Lizbuhn. You should kinda know how to pronounce these cities.” How cut off from civilization do you have to be to get a six-letter word wrong? Is it a matter of education, ethnicity, rural dialect? I knew how to say Lisbon when I was seven or eight after watching Casablanca on the tube.
what was Sanjay’s response?
The guy was an American hick. He vowels sounded like those of, say, a black guy from Memphis or Missouri, but I wouldn’t want to presume anyone’s ethnicity based on speech patterns.
Jeffrey, and I say this with all due affection, if you keep obsessing about stuff like this, you’re going to have a stroke. Let the baby have his bottle and go back to pondering the mysteries of the universe.
Yeah, that would be like not spelling the word phoenix correctly.
Jesus Christ, dude.
I’d be more aghast at Lisbon being spelled incorrectly than pronounced incorrectly.
Could be just a dialect thing – or some people prounounce words how they read them. They are seeing ‘bon’ like ‘bonnie’ or ‘bond’ instead of ‘bun’.
*sigh* There are so many other things to worry about besides this.
Did the guy handle your problem? Did he help you get whatever flight combo you wanted? Was he professional, speak clearly and know his job?
Because I’m imagining he went home and over dinner said, “You know, sometimes no matter well you do your job, some asshole finds a way to shit on your day.”
There’s also the irony that Jeff is using a bargain site like Expedia, yet expects their probably not too highly paid staff to be broadly trained professionals.
If it wasn’t already apparent, this makes it official: Jeff is a full-blown curmudgeon
haha, Wells, it MIGHT have been Sanjay, trained to sound like a hillbilly. I read an article (BBC, maybe?) last year that Indians were actually being trained to have regional American accents for call center jobs.
This and the restaurant thread made me laugh like a hyena for the first time in weeks. Thanks, all.
God forbid that any person on this planet hasn’t watched Casablanca by the age of 8. Crap, when I have kids, I’m gonna make sure that they see it at the tender age of two days old. Clockwork Orange style. My kids will KNOW how to pronounce Lisbon.
In true hillbilly/flyover fashion, your Expedia guy may have come from a state in the US with a small town named Lisbon that is pronounced exactly as he did. Iowa has a Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid) and a Lisbon (not sure how they say it there), Illinois has a Versailles (pronounced ver-SAILS).
Correspondingly, Jeff, how do you pronouce Paris?
Jeff, not that there’s anything revelatory about this, but, you’re a snob.
I love your everyman struggles, Wells-style.
haha, Wells, it MIGHT have been Sanjay, trained to sound like a hillbilly. I read an article (BBC, maybe?) last year that Indians were actually being trained to have regional American accents for call center jobs.
“Hello madam, yes, I have your flight confirmation for Lizbonn right here. You, your two year old, and that new baby with the colic will be seated next to a Mr. Jeffrey Wells. But I’m afraid the two year old will have to sit on the other side of Mr. Wells. Is that okay? Excellent…”
One thing I’ve often wondered: Is it OreGON or ORegon?
What this makes me think of most of all is Tobias Wolff’s fine short story, “Bullet in the Brain.”
Here’s a link:
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/commonagenda/files/wolff.pdf
It’s four short, finely wrought pages and anyone who hasn’t read it really should, especially our humble host ….
God forbid that any person on this planet hasn’t watched Casablanca by the age of 8. Crap, when I have kids, I’m gonna make sure that they see it at the tender age of two days old. Clockwork Orange style. My kids will KNOW how to pronounce Lisbon.
Don’t forget Louisville or Missouri. Family Guy’s Stewie mispronounces words, and they spend a few minutes kicking it back and forth.
It’s Portugal, not Portgual.
I love Jeffrey’s rants. Passion is so important in life. I don’t think it kills you. I think it keeps you alive.
What drives me crazy is the newscasters and such who say ‘taur’ and ‘taurist’ for tour and tourist
Oh, he must’ve been Israeli. Lizbonn is how we pronounce the capital of Portugal over here. Your Lizbuhn variation would make people over look at you funny.
Thank God he wasn’t a fat guy in a pink shirt named Danny.
Ironic, isn’t it that you titled this entry “hillbilly” even though you think the guy might have had a Memphis accent. There are no hills in Memphis, Jeff. The only hillbillies there would have had to move there from somewhere else.
To paraphase you: You should kinda know these cities. “How cut off from civilization do you have to be to get basic geography wrong? Is it a matter of education, ethnicity? I knew that Memphis had no hills or hillbillies when I was seven or eight.
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http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/03/19th_century_co.php
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