Friday, November 6, 2015

-- Gray Carper (gcarper@med.umich.edu)



我識講兩個語言. 英文係我嘅本族語, 不過八年前我開學廣東話...

Wait! Wrong language! Let's try this again:

I’m bilingual. English is my native language, but I’ve acquired Cantonese over the last 8 years. Most of my interactions in Cantonese are relaxed, light, and fun, but some make me very nervous…

  1. When I’m asking for help with something that’s important to me.
  2. When the conversation is over the phone (where fidelity is low and non-verbal information is lost).

Hong Kong affords me a safety net in that I can often switch into English when I feel I need to, but I don’t always have that luxury, and I’ve felt the panic that ensues when Cantonese is my only option and the other person isn't understanding me.


At MSIS, we support folks who have felt that panic too. Folks who can't use their native language to ask for help. Folks who are afraid to call us, do everything they can to fix their own problem just to avoid that call, and as a result are even more on-edge if they eventually do need to call us.

What if we could help prevent those fears or, if they do kick in, help ease them? Today I present to you a framework you can use to do just that...


MSIS and MCIT Service Desks have already been prepared to use this material and, should you want similar training, you can attend our quarterly Customer Experience 101 course (MSIS-30005 in MLearning). Want to build on that? Contact Performance & Improvement Management for ideas.

This work is the result of feedback from our quarterly NPS survey fed through our Problem Management process and I collaborated with many to make it a reality. Endless thanks to Roger Burns, Hong Da, Jonathan Komorowski, Keshav Kondam, Bonnie Thomas, Yuying Tian, Susan Topol, Jianfeng Wang, Michael Warden, Mayumi Yoneta, Erik Zempel, our unified Service Desk, and faculty at Michigan's English Language Institute.

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