A common phenomenon these days is someone being so grateful to FINALLY get a real person on the phone that they are reluctant to give up talking to them. Also they probably don't have anyone to talk to in real life. I noticed when I worked at the Library Service for the Blind & Physically Handicapped that nearly everyone I talked to on the phone felt compelled to tell me their age about every three sentences, interspersed with details of their personal biography.
That does sound quite reasonable, actually. She got 9+ minutes of company from me, so hopefully that helped her some. :D
I kept telling myself that I needed to cut her some slack - if you've never been to college before it can be confusing. PLus, she was almost 60, so I should respect your elders. Buy my mother is 71, and she knows you can't just decide you want to teach Spanish without knowing the language and that you need a license. So I did try very hard to sound patient - but it's registration and busy and she was asking the impossible. *sigh*
Based on my pet peeves and annoying work experiences, whenever I am the person on the other end of the phone I try very hard to 1) have a pen and pencil before I dial; 2) write down the name of the person I'm talking to right away; 3) summarize what I need & ask to be transferred to the appropriate department instead of trying to talk to whoever answers the phone, and 4) fight the urge to over share. It's hard sometimes!
Umm.... WOW. She wants to teach something that she doesn't really know? Maybe I should start teaching German... I bet I now more german than she does spanish.
Although I have had plenty of jobs where I've had someone who apparently just simply needed to talk.
I bet you could teach German - you got me off to a good start. Sadly I didn't keep it up. :(
In my example I said I could teach knitting - knowing full well that I could not! I actually felt bad about that, but it was the first thing that came to mind and correcting myself would have just been confusing. *sigh*
I'm guessing that was part of her issue - but it felt like she was just a "talker" not that she needed someone to talk to, you know?
I know!! I kept seeing all sorts of problems she would run into, but when I started mentioning some of them she dismissed them saying shouldn't apply to what she was wanting to do because all she wanted was to teach Spanish from her house. It didn't seem like anything I was saying was having any impact. After my first few attempts to rationally and reasonable talk about "teaching Spanish" were shot down I just gave up and didn't want to mention other potential issues because that was just prolonging the call.
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I kept telling myself that I needed to cut her some slack - if you've never been to college before it can be confusing. PLus, she was almost 60, so I should respect your elders. Buy my mother is 71, and she knows you can't just decide you want to teach Spanish without knowing the language and that you need a license. So I did try very hard to sound patient - but it's registration and busy and she was asking the impossible. *sigh*
Based on my pet peeves and annoying work experiences, whenever I am the person on the other end of the phone I try very hard to 1) have a pen and pencil before I dial; 2) write down the name of the person I'm talking to right away; 3) summarize what I need & ask to be transferred to the appropriate department instead of trying to talk to whoever answers the phone, and 4) fight the urge to over share. It's hard sometimes!
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And THAT is the extent of my spanish.
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She was actually NOT the craziest student I dealt with this week.
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Although I have had plenty of jobs where I've had someone who apparently just simply needed to talk.
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In my example I said I could teach knitting - knowing full well that I could not! I actually felt bad about that, but it was the first thing that came to mind and correcting myself would have just been confusing. *sigh*
I'm guessing that was part of her issue - but it felt like she was just a "talker" not that she needed someone to talk to, you know?
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I never got a driver's license, but I've always dreamed of being a driving teacher so WHY WON'T THE DRIVING SCHOOL HIRE ME BAWWWWWW
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I don't want to teach at the DMV; I just want to show people how to idle in my driveway.
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