Thanksgiving Day is a Petix Day!

For those agents under US accounts, today is a good day for them. It's a PETIX MODE day!!! Yoohoo!

Like Christmas and New Year celebrations, Thanksgiving day is one holiday that Americans celebrate the most. That being said, US callers will be busy and the volume of calls will be less especially in the evening. The petix mode will extend until the next day which is a Black Friday as well.

Yehey! Less calls, less stress for agents!


Fun Facts:

Thanksgiving day is celebrated every fourth Thursday of November in the US while Thanksgiving day is observed on the second Monday of October in Canada.

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving day in the US. This marks the start of the holiday sale season. Although Canadians do not have that special day in their calendars, most will cross the border to avail of the special discounts offered by stores in the US.

Closing Spiel: Again, this is Yallit and thank you for visiting. Have a Nice Day!

Tongue Twisters

Expect to have your tongues twisted during Cultural Training days. Brush up on your soft th and hard th, your s sounds and your ph sounds. Sounds familiar? lol!

Here are the most common tongue twisters given by trainers:

She Sells Seashells by the Seashore.

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper. Did Peter Piper Pick a Peck of Pickled Pepper? If Peter Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper, where is the Peck of Pickled Pepper Peter Piper picked?

How much Wood Could a Wood Chuck Chuck if a Wood Chuck Could Chuck Wood?

Now here are our Filipino Tongue Twisters:

Ang relo ni leroy ay rolex

Minekaniko ni Moniko ang Makina ni Monica.

I'm not sure though if our Filipino tongue twisters would be of help to you. lol! And yes, this topic was inspired by Kim's commercial of Goya Twister. 

Miss Classic's line: What are friends are for?

Closing Spiel: Again, this is Yallit and thank you for visiting. Have a Nice Day!

Call Centers and the English Language

Call center companies are sprouting like mushrooms not only in Metro Manila but all over the country. And with the growth of the Call Center industry in the country, it is but normal to see their ads everywhere. You'll see them in MRT/LRT stations, buses, ad boards in the streets and even in underpasses in Makati area. They have also taken over the advertisement pages in your favorite broadsheet or local newspapers. They even proliferate in your favorite job boards online like Jobstreet and JobsDB. However, after all those numerous ads they show each single day, how come each call center company is still looking for 200 new agents and even sometimes others look for up to a thousand new agents to fill out their seats?

The answer: Declining English Proficiency in the Philippines.

I've been with the call center industry for a few years now with 2 call center companies. And during those years that I've worked for this industry, I've seen new comers and I can really say that the new graduates these past few years aren't as proficient in English as was required by the call center companies back then.

I am not going to say I am very fluent in English. Heck, if I am to rate myself, I'll give me an 8 (Of course during an interview, I'll say I'm a 9 if the interviewer asks me about my English proficiency. lol!)  Sad to say that most of the new comers rate even lower than me in terms of fluency in English. What's surprising is that they even come from great universities here in Metro Manila while I was a graduate from a little college in the North. Added to that, I was with one of the top call center companies in the country which was known to accept only 2% of their applicants. Do you get the picture?

I just started with my 2nd call center company recently but I've applied to various companies before then to check which one will give me the best offer. And I can't believe what I've seen or heard during those interview sessions. There are some companies where they interview applicants by groups of 5 or 10 where you get to hear other applicants struggle in terms of pronunciation, sentence construction and grammar. There are even companies where the interviewers actually suck (excuse my term) in the use of the English language as well.

Oh well, I hope there would be a big change in our educational system. And I'm hoping they again enforce English Only on subjects that are supposed to be taught in English. That way, students will be compelled to speak the language. As they say, "With practice comes perfection."

My tips for those who'd like to hone their skills:

1. Read English books - If you don't like educational books, then, read English pocketbooks.
2. Watch American movies
3. Watch US TV series
4. Practice, Practice and Practice

**This is a repost from my other blog: http://usappinoy.blogspot.com

Closing Spiel: Again, this is Yallit and thank you for visiting. Have a Nice Day!

The Power of Powercycle

And yet another self-help tip from me.



Powercycle is simply turning off your modem and router for a few seconds then turning them back on. This is a very useful troubleshooting step and mostly resolves 80% of sync no browse** issues.

The best way to perform a powercycle is to unplug and replug the power cords of your modem or gateway and router. Now if you are using both a modem and a router, it's best to perform a sequenced powercycle. What do I mean about that? First, turn off your modem by unplugging its power cord, then, followed by the router. After about 10 seconds, turn the modem back on first. Wait for the DSL light (might be a Link light for some modems) to turn solid green before turning the router back on.


**Sync No Browse is a state where the modem is detecting a DSL signal from the phone line but the computers aren't able to pull up websites. The DSL and Internet lights on the modem are always solid green.

Closing Spiel: Again, this is Yallit and thank you for visiting. Have a Nice Day!