Because it almost never becomes more of a time-save to learn the phonetic alphabet than the 3 seconds it costs every 3 years when someone is saying “did you say a or h?” to me.
This only matters for people that regularly (at least once every few days) need to spell something out loud to someone, or if an error would lead to serious consequences. Almost no one is in those positions.
Working in a call center, I can definitely agree that you don’t need to know the proper NATO phonetic alphabet, because ‘A as in apple’ and ‘M as in Mary’ work just as well.
But I do wish more people would say something to that effect because I lose more than 3 seconds every day to ‘Did you say N or M’ while on the phones.
I picked up the NATO alphabet while working in a callcenter. I also picked up that most customers can’t figure out what the heck you mean by “address it to Fort Worth spell Foxtrot Oscar Romeo Tango Whiskey Oscar Romeo Tango Hotel” so I shifted to only spelling sound-a-like letters phonetically “address it to Ashwaubenon spelled A-S-H-W-A-U-B as in Bravo-E-N as in Nancy-O-N as in Nancy”
100% this is the way. For short words I’ll just spell it out and then do it in NATO such as ‘That’s Via benefits, V-I-A Victor India Alpha’ and that also seems to register with them.
Yep, I only started to learn this when I needed it at work. People who use radios like police, fire, military, that makes sense. Otherwise, my girlfriend and I sometimes use it when we have trouble understanding each other.
Because it almost never becomes more of a time-save to learn the phonetic alphabet than the 3 seconds it costs every 3 years when someone is saying “did you say a or h?” to me.
This only matters for people that regularly (at least once every few days) need to spell something out loud to someone, or if an error would lead to serious consequences. Almost no one is in those positions.
Working in a call center, I can definitely agree that you don’t need to know the proper NATO phonetic alphabet, because ‘A as in apple’ and ‘M as in Mary’ work just as well.
But I do wish more people would say something to that effect because I lose more than 3 seconds every day to ‘Did you say N or M’ while on the phones.
I picked up the NATO alphabet while working in a callcenter. I also picked up that most customers can’t figure out what the heck you mean by “address it to Fort Worth spell Foxtrot Oscar Romeo Tango Whiskey Oscar Romeo Tango Hotel” so I shifted to only spelling sound-a-like letters phonetically “address it to Ashwaubenon spelled A-S-H-W-A-U-B as in Bravo-E-N as in Nancy-O-N as in Nancy”
100% this is the way. For short words I’ll just spell it out and then do it in NATO such as ‘That’s Via benefits, V-I-A Victor India Alpha’ and that also seems to register with them.
I speak to customer service representatives on the phone and when they ask for codes, I recite NATO to them. And they get confused.
“Please sir can you enter your product code?”
“Yeah it’s one zulu foxtrox three niner…”
“Wat.”
Weird. I learned from doing customer service and tech support. Never had anyone confused when I use it as a caller.
Yep, I only started to learn this when I needed it at work. People who use radios like police, fire, military, that makes sense. Otherwise, my girlfriend and I sometimes use it when we have trouble understanding each other.
I’ve been trying to use food items for the alphabet. Apple, banana, carrot, etc. It’s not perfect but I like it.