I'm calling United Airlines customer service because I'm having trouble booking a flight.  I can immediately tell by the accent of the man who's assisting me that he's Indian. This is no surprise to me - practically every US corporation outsources their customer service and tech support phone people to Indians. I also know that these phoneline workers (can't think of a better name) are taught regional American English accents to make the caller think that they're talking to someone in the states.

I know all this.

I still can't help but chuckle at the few times their true locale comes through because of a slip of the tongue or some other hint.

Like when they ask me to spell my name, I've gotten in the habit of giving a word to go for each letter because they often can't hear me - like "P as in Paul" etc. When the person on the other end of the line parrots back what I've just said in order to double-check the spelling of my name, they always, without fail, say "Y as in Yankee." Even if I've used some other word to illustrate the last letter of my last name, they still use Yankee. I bet that's in their handbook of best words for each letter of the American English alphabet, and "yankee" is a term that they might be familiar with to talk about us ol' US'ians.

This has happened to me on multiple calls.

But tonight, the phone staffer (customer service guy?) was verifying the cost of my flight with me, and accidentally said: "Your total will be three hundred and twenty rupees - uh - dollars, maam."

Oops. I bet their handbook strongly cautions against that kind of a slip up.

I just find it all very strange - a poorly veiled act.