NATO Alphabet! Do you speak it?

[lolotehe]

(After telling the caller to actually spell the ID, as opposed to punching buttons on the phone)*

CALLER: ...that's L like Larry, M like Mary, and # as in #all.

ME: I'm sorry, what was that last letter?

CALLER: It's # like in #all.

ME: Is there another word that starts with that letter please?

CALLER: IT'S # LIKE IN #ALL!

ME: Was that T as in tall, B as in ball, C as in call, D as in doll, or P as in Paul?

CALLER: Don't you speak English?

ME: It's just that you've picked a phonetically ambiguous word that does not parse correctly over the phone.

CALLER: A what?

ME: A phonetically ambiguous word. Let's try this again. B as in bravo, T as in tango, C as in Charlie--

CALLER: Can I talk to someone else?

ME: Sure thing. (transfers call to India)


*I have ranted about this before, and how people mistake me for the VRU.

Comments

[nightsinger.livejournal.com]

Fucking hell. Yes, that would be the purpose of the NATO alphabet.

And people are surprised to learn I've memorised it... Cripes.

[fragbert.livejournal.com]

Me too. Some things that the military teaches you actually make sense.

I once said to sucktomer, "So that's V as in Victor?"

Reply: "No, V as in ..uh... valentine! My name isn't Victor."

[brothersterno.livejournal.com]

people kept asking if I was a 1) pilot or 2) ex military.

No, it just turns out that I had a need to be unambiguous over often shitty audio connections, just like pilots and military people, and unfettered access to internet search engines.

[tullamoredew.livejournal.com]

hm, I am an ex military, but our phonetic alphabet was a Hebrew one. Still, I've learned the Nato phonetic in a week when I was doing English support, and I still use it now (to name iSCSI targets :))

[merlin-t-wizard.livejournal.com]

In my case, when I started in the radio business, I was working for someone ex-military, so it seemed logical.

[jennielf.livejournal.com]

See, I pick random stuff. Like M as in Moose or I as in Ice Cream or Icicle. I have no idea what the actual NATO alphabet is but now I know there is a name for it I shall attempt to actually learn it... :)

"The More you Know...."

(I like LJ it teaches me stuff!) :D

[gholam.livejournal.com]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/FAA_Phonetic_and_Morse_Chart2.svg

[lolotehe]

Yeah, I make stuff up sometimes for Halloween or Christmas.

G is in ghost. M as in monster....

And sometimes, if they annoy me enough, I'll make up other ones.

L as in listen. C as in concept. S as in stubborn....

[d-l-leonine.livejournal.com]

F as in F*tard!

[jecook]

Delta Alpha Mike November Sierra Kilo India Pappa Pappa Yankee Bang

[the-reda.livejournal.com]

That is exactly how I read that XD

[klytus.livejournal.com]

P as in pneumonia...
C as in Celtic...

I've played this game before....

[lolotehe]

E and in eye, W as in why, S as in Sea....

Re: I've played this game before....

[supermouse.livejournal.com]

D for Ential
C for Yourself...

[fuego.livejournal.com]

So uh...how were they pronouncing that?

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

"Yankee Doodle Floppy Disk, this is Foxtrot Zulu Milkshake,"
"Alpha Velveeta Knuckle Underwear, you are cleared for take-off"
"Sphincter Mucus Layer Ringworm, roger."

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

I tried using the NATO alphabet with someone in India, that just confused them even more.

[phantoms-siren.livejournal.com]

"No no no!!! Not S as in 'Sierra'!! S as in SUGAR you moron!" *sigh*

I don't know if this is unique to the UK but here its standard with small children to say "curly cuh" and "kicking kuh" to distinguish between C and K. I've had more than one apparently educated person then go on to say "K as in Carrot! Kicking kuh!"

[natalie-i-am.livejournal.com]

Phantoms:
Karoten... they weren't wrong. Just using the wrong language!

[tanamiya.livejournal.com]

(transfers call to I)

...I don't get it.

[fluffydragon.livejournal.com]

the word they were saying could have been ball, fall, call, doll, paul, awl, gall, tall, ya'll, hall, mall, wall, etc.

They needed to say something that couldn't have been a million words so that the OP could make out the first letter - the word they choose, it wasn't clear what the first letter was, thus the pound sign.

F as in francisco, b as in balloon, c as in charlie, p as in partner, a as in apple, etc.

[tanamiya.livejournal.com]

OP kept nagging the customer about using the NATO alphabet.

OP transferred the call to India.

India in the NATO alphabet is I.

It was a terrible joke anyway.

Thanks for playing!

[lordstorm.livejournal.com]

Er, so how does one actually pronounce "# as in #all"? Surely I'm not the only one actually thinking this?

Personally, I read it as "hash as in hashall", but it doesn't quite make sense to me, unless this is literally what the OP meant. Must be missing something in translation, methinks.....?

Which reminds me: is there actually a NATO equivalent to the symbol alphabet? Reading modern passwords out containing upper-ASCII characters is constantly a pain: not many users even know what an "ampersand" is (&); it's either "dash" (which is confused with "slash" at times) or "hyphen"; "hash" (#) is read as "pound" by Americans for some reason, which Brits naturally think is their currency sign (£); it's either "bang" (which again some users have no idea what that is) or "exclamation (point)" (!), which has so many syllables as to be unfathomable on shitty phone conections; and lastly the parenthecal symbols ({[]}) are anyone's guess ("open/left bracket/parentheses/brace/curly bracket/square bracket, etc")....aie.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Er, so how does one actually pronounce "# as in #all"? Surely I'm not the only one actually thinking this?

I wondered for a moment, but from the context, it means "some sound I can't clearly distinguish".

The names of the letters T B C D P sound identical except for their initial sound, so if you don't hear the first sound clearly, that doesn't help. Similarly, saying "[TBCDP] as in [TBCDP]all" doesn't help since all of "tall, ball, call, Paul" sound identical except, again, for the first sound, which you didn't hear clearly in the first place or there'd be little purpose in saying "A as in Alpha" in the first place.

("Doll" would sound different in my 'lect, but I acknowledge that it'd be a perfect rhyme with the other words for others.)