Spell Phonetically
A Like Annoying; G Like Grating; P Like Peeve as in Pet...
Let me spell it out for you.
Replacing letters with words in order to avoid confusion when speaking over the telephone is a near universally understood cultural phenomenon. Often referred to as phonetic alphabet, standardized alphabets developed for official use are called spelling alphabets.
Most of Americans prime experience with spelling alphabets come from TV and movies. The notable exception is those with military background, along with a few other professions.
In the police drama, we hear the cop putting out an APB on a car with Charlie or Adam in the license plate number. In the war movies, the entirety of radio conversations seems to consist of names and numbers.
I never thought about the spelling alphabet, nor knew the term for it, before I started working in a call center. Some may know that I take calls from retail store associates for a national mobile phone company. After a year and a half of listen to serial numbers and proper names being spelled out phonetically straight into my headset, I have some recommendations on the subject.
First, please use this method whenever there is room for error. This is most important in serial numbers. It is also much easier any time the person on the other end of the phone is having trouble understanding, or spelling, what you are trying to get across.
Kudos to those who try to use phonetic exchanges. I know it feels weird at first, but the benefits outweigh the goofiness.
The major difficulty come in how most people go about it. For example, someone trying to spell "HDMI switches" will usually say,
H as in Henry
D as in Dan
M as in Milton
I as in... ah...um.. Ice Cream
S as in Sam
W as in Wally
I as in Ice Cream
T as in Tom
C as in Charlie
H as in Henry
E as in Elephant
S as in Sam
Police officers, air traffic controllers, and retired military have their hands raised at this point to report the unofficial, non-standard word. Yes, most people do not use many, if any, of the standard words.
I found a cool chart on Wikipedia listing several spelling alphabets. The NATO or Aviation version is the one I think of as "official" but the others are no less useful. It doesn't bother me one lick. I would rather you say whatever you are comfortable with hesitation, rather than "ah... um..."
In fact, I use a rather dumbed down set of words that I think of as "nursery school ABC book." Apple, Boy, Cat, Dog, Eddie, X-Ray, Zoo, you get the idea. For my purposes as long as the caller and I get the point across, being "correct" isn't important.
What is the problem with the caller trying to tell me about those switches? One letter and two little words.... H as in, D as in, ect. For one thing, it is a complete waste of time to say that for every single letter. "Like" is no better, so you "Q like Quick" people are not innocent.
I realize you don't mean for me to type in the entire word.
Most problematic is when you say the letter and I hear incorrectly. When you go on to say the word standing for a letter other than what I incorrectly heard, it takes me a couple beats to adjust.
My brain does a cartoon style double-take when I hear you say "V as in Brave" or "C like Kilo."
That What-the-Heck moment is the reason I am writing this rant/education piece. At work, I have to leave it alone. Correcting, or educating, the callers would come off rude (I'm not) and condescending (guilty as charged).
When you take a moment to think about the reason spelling alphabets were created,this problem defeats the purpose. And drives me plum up the wall after dozens of similar conversations every work day. By the end of a shift, I'm having violent daydreams where I pop 'em on the head, then explain how to do it correctly. They were created because over radio or telephone it can be easy to mistake certain letters for other letters.
Just say the letter. Just say the letter. Just say the letter.
Just say the letter.
Juliet-Uniform-Sierra-Tango
Sierra-Alpha-Yankee
Tango-Hotel-Echo
Lima-Echo-Tango-Tango-Echo-Romeo.
It's also used in speech recognition software for spelling out words that are not in its vocabulary.
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Cool. I didn't know that, but I can see why it would be helpful.
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Ah, the phonetic alphabet! I forget it almost constantly and need to use it often! We deal with a piece of software that you need to answer a license challenge with an eight-segment license code... which WE need to get the customer from Wales... "Echo, Charlie, The Number 7, The Number 8, Uniform, Bravo, next box..."
...except I constantly end up saying "E as in Edward, C as in Canada, seven, eight, U as in Unicorn, B as in Boy..."
...so I guess I'm guilty...
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No shame. I hope I've inspired you to confidently spit out those words out, despite sounding silly.
I even did it once today. I had a confirmation number that was five numbers then B... In that case, It's almost a heads up that a letter is coming.
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i heard a guy say, L for Elephant and U for Eugene once when he was attempting to spell phonetically. lol.
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That's great. I wonder if he realized after the fact.
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