Part 1
About two weeks ago, I received a call on my cell phone from a person with a horrible connection who spoke no English. Knowing that all of my friends and family speak English, I said, "wrong number" a number of times before the caller hung up on me. The caller immediately called back and I just let it go to voicemail figuring they would realize the message is not anyone they know and that will be that. The caller leaves a message in a language I do not understand.
A few days later, I receive another call. I let it go to voicemail. Next 3 days, same drill. I do some research on the phone number and find it is from Nigeria. I am convinced I know no one there. I get another call on Saturday and this time the message left contains English telling me I should "call my sister in Nigeria." Unless my dad made some trips I am unaware of, I am fairly certain the only sister I have is in Raleigh, NC.
Feeling sorry that someone desperately wants to speak with their sibling here in the USA, I fire up Google to determine if there is a way to tell this person in her native language that she has the wrong number. In doing so, I discover that there are about 50 different languages spoken in Nigeria. It is probably going to be beyond my meager mental capabilities to figure out how to say "wrong number" in all 50. Interestingly, this Nigerian language web site states, "English is the official language in Nigeria. We were colonized by the British, obtaining our independence on October 1, 1960." WTF! Now I am really confused. According to this website, there is a good chance whoever is calling can speak English.
Fast forward to today. I see the familiar Nigerian number pop up on my cell phone. I answer in clear English, the official language of Nigeria. The poor bastards on the other end don't understand a word I am saying and repeatedly try to give me a phone number to have some person call their sister in Nigeria.
Until these calls started, the only interaction with Nigeria that I had previously was receiving a few hundred e-mails from the wife/child/mistress/pet of a deceased oil minister/president/foreign minister asking if I could help transfer a few million $ out of their country (Naturally, I declined). So, beyond letting these calls continue to go to voicemail and then creating a website based on their content, is there any way you can think of to communicate to this person that she is dialing the wrong number?
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1 comment:
Doug,
The Post this week had an article that even where English is spoken in other places, it may still be fairly unrecognizable to us.
dawn
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