[EAS]Bimmers in Bagalore

[pjk]

Subject:   Bimmers in Bagalore

This rather charmed me, made me think of my teenage years, when I
arrived in the US in 1955 from Austria--my high school classmates
asked me about kangaroos--and similarly learned colloquial English
from television. The usefully stylized Charlie Chan, Hopalong
Cassidy and Lone Ranger episodes I consumed were 'mythical
elsewheres'. 'Friends' and 'Ally McBeal' are, I guess, meant to be
the culture and vocabulary of the US, now consumed in India by
e-workers of US companies.   --PJK

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(from NewsScan Daily,  21 March 2001)

"NO WAY, JOS*!" - EXCEPT IN BANGALORE, WHERE A WAY IS FOUND 
India is expected to generate 800,000 new technology-related jobs
by 2008,  bringing in $17 billion in revenue from the labor of
software developers,  transcribers, accountants, and support people
providing outsourcing  services to companies in the U.S. and
elsewhere. Cities such as Bangalore  have large numbers of
English-speaking, well-educated, and highly skilled  workers ...
but are they able to interact with Americans so well that, for 
example, they possibly can convince American callers that they are
ordinary  fellow-Americans? The answer: practice, practice,
practice ... and a lot of  time spent watch U.S. television shows.
Call-center employee C.R. Suman  explained: "We watch a lot of
'Friends' and "Ally McBeal' to learn the  right phrases. When
people talk about their Bimmer, you have to know they  mean a BMW."
And her friend Nishara Anthony added: "Or when they say 'No  way,
JosÈ,' there is no JosÈ." (New York Times 21 Mar 2001)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/21/technology/21CALL.html