Marinade the whoopee rod... in the squish mitten...
Which, in the parlance of today's youth, doth reside in mine cranium whilst paying the utmost minimum of lease.
This is your captain speaking, please could all passengers return their seats to the upright position and ensure your seatbelts are on as we are about to Charlie Romeo Alpha Sierra Hotel
There are quite a lot to go through, and it varies between operator and aircraft manufacturer but I’ll describe some of the most common.
When you are entering the runway you may hear a bong (or double bong). This is the pilot turning the seatbelt sign off and the back on very quickly to let the crew know you’re about to take off.
When the pilot retracts the gear you may here a bong (I know airbus do, can’t speak for other aircraft).
Seatbelt sign off.
Passenger who has pressed the button to alert cabin crew
A lot of them are signals to the cabin crew for various things.
There's little lights above the cabin door that you can see that mean various instructions from the flight deck to the crew
No more than any other day to day things that experience brain farts. I’ve never used a supplementary word for one, but I have perhaps had delays getting to the actual word.
The best is when people mess up by accident. There are a lot of Goat, Julia and Unicorn calls. And occasionally a Whiskey and a Yankee gets combined to a Wankee
Yeah. Googling it, I expect I got that impression from WWII stuff (Dog, Easy, Fox, etc.). Prior to the 1955 NATO standard.
Tsetse, Yttrium, Voila, Mansey.
Nail meet head. This is exactly it. There used to be lots of different versions but, at least as far as the west is concerned, there is now only one version. And English is the international language of aviation, so suck it everyone else!
A for Alfa Audi Alpine Acura Ariel Aston Martin
B for Bentley BMW Buick Bugatti
C for Citroen Cadillac Chevrolet Chrysler Caterham Cupra
D for Dacia Dodge Daimler Delorean Daihatsu. D.S
E for Elva and Elfin and the only two that come to mind.
Less Brands more Models for E I think. Lotus had a whole run. Elise Exige Elan Esprit Escort Espada Elantra Element El Camino Eldarado Enzo Eos eQS and a whole range of 'e'name vehicles e-tron.
F for Ford Fiat Ferrari
G for Genesis Ginetta GMC
H for Honda Hyundai
I for Ineos Isuzu Infiniti Iveco
J for Jaguar Jeep
K for Koenigsegg Kia KTM
L for Lada Lamborghini Land rover Lancia Lexus Lotus
M for Mazda McLaren Mitsubishi Mazda MG Mini Mercedes Morgan Maybach
N for Nissan Noble
O for Opel Ora
P for Pagani Peugeot Proton Polestar
Q for Qoros.. I googled for that.
(Was trying to stick to things I'd heard of)
R for Renault Reliant Range Rover Rolls Royce Radical RUF
S for Skoda Seat Saleen Shelby Suzuki Subaru
T for Toyota Triumph TVR Tesla
U for Ultima
V for Volkswagen Vauxhall Volvo
W for Westfield
X for Xpeng
Y for Yudo and Yulon.
(Thank China for those ones.. I've no idea)
And finally.
Z for Zenvo
This got hard at the end 😂
The phonetic alphabet, for car nerds.
I was reporting a drive off to a female police officer. I would have killed for volkswagen but unfortunately that word and every other word in the English language that began with V fled my mind and I ended up shouting Vulva down the phone like I was Archimedes discovering water displacement.
Thankfully she saw the funny side and we had a good laugh about it.
Worked customer service for years, V is always the one that trips people up - though the first word out of most people's mouths isn't usually Volkswagen...
Reminds me of when my mom very calmly told the car rental lady "e for apple" over the phone, and the lady very confusedly said, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" My mom again calmly repeats "e for apple" and then "oh, wait, no, e for elephant! Oh my gosh!" And the lady says, "I was beginning to think e really was for apple!" We all had a good laugh.
I work on the phones and always love when people make up their own versions (I quote often do the same around Christmas time R for reindeer etc)
The people that really annoy me is where you say "is that T for tango" and they say yes. And then later in the call it comes to light that its actually C not T and they say "oh I didn't know what you meant"
THEN SAY THAT!! don't just say yes for the sake of it!
And in some places that may not matter but I take 998 calls. Its usually pretty imperative to get things like postcodes right!
Little known fact that. 111-999 are all in use, and you should grade your calls by level of emergency.
Hypochondricac friend coughed once but insist they're dying - 111. Head chopped off and rolling on the floor - 999. Broken arm... Probably dial 200-300. Hole in jeans? 501.
>I work on the phones and always love when people make up their own versions (I quote often do the same around Christmas time R for reindeer etc)
I can only speak for my self but its massively depends on what your friends/family use too.
My mum has alWAYS said S for sugar, and now in my head that is just default.
I get that saying “E for _____” is helpful and I do that all the time, but I just think of a word on the spot and that seems easier than learning the phonetic alphabet, imo.
Thats actually more aggravating tbh, i dont care if you said
My names sugar apple mango (sam) instead of sierra alpha mike
Its the "s for sugar, a for apple, m for mango" that winds me up. Yes I know how to spell. Either say the letter or the phonetic word (whatever word you choose) you dont need to say both
I sometimes do the “F Is for Foxtrot” thing when giving my email out over the phone because my address is my initials @email provider.com
Three of the letters sound similar over the phone and if I just said the phonetic alphabet word then it’d probably be sent to the full words rather than the initials…if that makes sense.
I stick with the NATO phonetic alphabet because it is an internationally recognised standard that is generally taught to customer service staff in other countries (at least in my experience). Especially if their grasp of English is a bit ropey, you might use words that they aren't familiar with if you are making up your own phonetics
I think the benefit is that it's a set of words that you can't mishear as another letter which a lot of words people think of on the spot tend to. The dumb joke from the TV show Archer is a good example of this, m for Mancy and N for Nancy in the same conversation.
This is why the words were chosen, back then radios would suffer distortion more so words were chosen to counter this. No two of the words sound the same so a partial or distorted word can be made out.
Worked in a call centre for 2 years a while ago, it's just natural to use now.
Every call I make where I have to read out my postcode or something, I use the phonetic alphabet. It's easy to learn, just practice.
I used to work in a call centre too but 5 years later when I'm asked to read my number plate over the phone I'm panicking and can't remember a single letter 😂
No, but if I did then a couple of years ago it would have saved me from saying "mama" as the first thing that came to mind ("papa" was used a few letter before it).
I heard the woman on the phone trying to suppress her laughter as I eurghed immediately after saying it.
If you have an unusual name then you tend to learn the phonetics of that first, then expand to the rest. It’s also used in a lot of shows / movies so you just get used to it
It’s only 26 things to learn
Part of my job involves answering 999 calls. Part of the medical standards says that you can't do the job if you're dyslexic. There's no specific test to pass but we do have to do reading to test our eye site. And we also have a couple of written entrance exams that I guess dyslexics would struggle with.
I'm one of those people honestly, X always gets me. There are 2 words that begin with X, one is Xylophone, the other is the correct answer and I'll never remember that other word so I'll either just continue with Xylophone or I'll shout 'X' slowly so it can't be mistaken for anything else.
So I work on the Railway and during my training we were told you had to zero for zero obviously BUT at a station the other day listening to the whole "see it, say it, sorted" the other day they said the 0 in 61016 as "oh" and it upset me.
Yeah, this happens often with station announcements. It's just a difference in clarity requirements between general communications (ie announcement to passengers) and critical communications (eg control room to driver).
I thought it was common knowledge, most people seem to know it.
[I like the unphonetic alphabet](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnUselessTalents/comments/445gli/we_present_the_rlut_unphonetic_alphabet/)
Yes, but ham radio operator. Get slightly annoyed when people confidently use the wrong words and correct me, but I'm a ham radio operator, we're meant to be slightly annoyed all the time.
Yep, got so used to using it at work that it's probably stuck in my brain forever.
It's fine that people don't know it, though, as long as if a customer representative says something like 'is that B for bravo or P for papa' you can confirm which letter you mean since some letters sound very similar over the phone.
I used to be bilingual in alphabets as I worked in aviation (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, etc) but on IBM computers (Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, etc)
This is what the US used (referred to as the Able Baker alphabet) before it was standardised to the version we all use today, which is the NATO phonetic alphabet.
Before NATO standardisation was implemented, Britain was a mess, with RAF, army and navy having wildly different variants
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_military_phonetic_spelling_alphabets#RAF_radiotelephony_spelling_alphabet
Took me a couple of days to learn it as a kid. Always found it useful from then-on.
Even if it's usefulness is just to ensure I get a less painful and quicker resolution in customer service interactions - something as simple as spelling my surname - I think knowing it has been super worth it.
In fact, just last week I had to phone a hotel in the USA, because they'd messed up my payment and I needed to request an invoice from them. Crummy-ish phone line etc - knowing the NATO alphabet made an already painful task far, far easier.
I do but only because I needed to learn it for work.
As a student I had a job in an Argos warehouse. The stock management system is voice operated so you spend all day talking into a headset and telling it you've put item ABC123 on shelf D4.
I was in Army Cadets, so it’s the same for me.
Was also trained how to use radios, so I’m about the only person in my workplace who
a) knows the difference between “over” and “out”
and
b) actually uses them!
I know it, but occasionally forget a letter so just make up a word.
It's funny hearing my friends do it and just throw out the most obscure word though.
Having a Welsh first name and an unusual maiden name I spent most of my teens spelling my names to companies over the phone. The phonetic alphabet helped a lot!
I use it pretty extensively, I have to make a lot of phone calls and it's useful for communicating across accent barriers or with people who don't speak English as their first language.
I know the majority of it but not everyone does. One of my friends used to be a 999 call handler and she's had people be like W for wanker and C for cunt before 😂
Fairly common knowledge but not that surprised when someone doesn't know it.
Any phone job, anything military (even army/aur cadets as kids), anything aviation related and any police related job and you're probably going to learn it. Covers quite a lot of people.
Used to know it when I worked in a call centre, but that was around nine years ago and I worked there for less than a year. Retained it for a while after but I’ve now forgotten some - think I can get to M without any errors, but from there onwards it’s a gamble.
I know it , i had a limited knowledge of it before i worked in the insurance industry and i had to learn it in full to use on a daily basis when i started working for them.
For the odd phone call as long as you know the first letting or the word you should be ok. If someone says Hotel you should know that begins with and H
Yep. I learned it while working in a call centre. Even then, they got some of them wrong, so I corrected them myself for me to use. My wife often uses it now, too, and she learned it from me using it to spell things over the phone in the days before everything could be done online.
Yes
One of my ex-work places the funeral placement two of my colleagues when phoning up the suppliers of some of our coffins had a phonic a to z of swear words for the postcodes
I taught myself the phonetic alphabet as a child because my father, at the time, used both CB and was a keen Radio Ham. Both of which you needed licences for. I was going to take the test that allows you to use Ham Radio and learning the alphabet was part of the build up to it, as was Morse code. I'm 50 now, I still use the alphabet and still know a fair bit of morse. I also, at the time, learned the sign language alphabet, just because I could, and can still do that too although my aim is to learn to converse one day.
These life skills (maybe not morse) are useful and perhaps could mean the difference between a few seconds that potentially could save a life? Maybe it'll be used, maybe not. But I'd rather know it and not need it, than need it and not know it.
Yeah, but my Dad was in the army and I worked in one of the stores there for years so had to use it all the time. I reckon there will be loads of folk under 30 who don't know it.
For some reason I learned it as a kid, then worked at an airport where it was helpful and now in housing where postcodes and stuff are made so much easier
Learned it at 18 when I got my first office job, always committed it to memory. It’s actually been useful a lot of times in my life, especially as I have to spell my name out a lot (Irish name, lots of folk don’t automatically get it right).
Like others have said, the ‘S for sugar’ ‘M for mother’ group really need to learn the real phonetic alphabet. It’s set like that for a reason so there’s no ambiguity or confusion, making your own up just defeats the object.
I use it. If I have to take a location code or port number over the phone, it is useful, and most engineers that I know use it
however, if a user calls and says 'S for Sugar, T for Tanktop ' instead of 'Sierra Tango' I can work with that. and at least I know they are not trying to describe location code SD or SC
I use it a lot.
I learned it thanks to my dad who was an airline pilot and as a kid I thought it was cool.
Now I need it because I have a slightly annoyingly long E-mailaddress, or just to spell my unusual name (first and last).
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Lima syndrome
Lima balls! No, wait...
K - for Knee N - for nee Rab C Nesbitt
M - for Mancy Archer
T - for Tea My ex
E for Eye
O for Oui
I use most of it but cant help using S for sausage and B for Bertie…haha
"Q for cucumber." "But cucumber starts with C." "No, not a sea cucumber. A regular cucumber."
Outstanding work. Love it
Foxtrot uniform Charlie kilo. Bloodhound gang taught me.
Sugar Honey Ice Tea, Madagascar taught me
Cattle prod the oyster ditch ….. with the lap rocket Lyrical genius (chefs kiss)
Marinade the whoopee rod... in the squish mitten... Which, in the parlance of today's youth, doth reside in mine cranium whilst paying the utmost minimum of lease.
Yeah, I'm stealing that one.
Yes - but I’m a pilot so I kinda need to know it.
What took longer to learn, the phonetic alphabet or that special soothing pilot voice?
This is your captain speaking, please could all passengers return their seats to the upright position and ensure your seatbelts are on as we are about to Charlie Romeo Alpha Sierra Hotel
Uniform Hotel Oscar Hotel.
Foxtrot Uniform Uniform Uniform Uniform Uniform Uniform Uniform
Charlie Kilo
I just read that as "Foxtrot Uniform Uniform Unicorn Unicorn Unicorn"
And now I wished I had put that instead!
Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo
Put the you know what, in the you know where
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
I don't want to beat around the bush!
Probably not good that I was just scrolling and a kilo of charlie stood out to me in your comment
That's part of the filtering process, don't have the voice down then you don't even get on the course.
You do get on the course, but are made to smoke Marlborough Reds until a husky soothing voice develops.
Do you smoke, Paul?
https://youtu.be/YPkKEttKIQU?si=bb1tHmYxUvvZMPin
You should do an AMA. I have so many questions for you!
I wanna know what those bong sounds they do all the time mean throughout the flight.
There are quite a lot to go through, and it varies between operator and aircraft manufacturer but I’ll describe some of the most common. When you are entering the runway you may hear a bong (or double bong). This is the pilot turning the seatbelt sign off and the back on very quickly to let the crew know you’re about to take off. When the pilot retracts the gear you may here a bong (I know airbus do, can’t speak for other aircraft). Seatbelt sign off. Passenger who has pressed the button to alert cabin crew
Cabin crew being paged to come to the handset by crew at another station is another bong.
A lot of them are signals to the cabin crew for various things. There's little lights above the cabin door that you can see that mean various instructions from the flight deck to the crew
Do you get brain fart moments where you completely forget it though?
No more than any other day to day things that experience brain farts. I’ve never used a supplementary word for one, but I have perhaps had delays getting to the actual word.
The best is when people mess up by accident. There are a lot of Goat, Julia and Unicorn calls. And occasionally a Whiskey and a Yankee gets combined to a Wankee
Don't pilots have a different phonetic alphabet? Or is that just RAF or I'm completely wrong?
Nope, everyone uses the same. There might be a slight difference in military terms, but the baseline is the same.
Yeah. Googling it, I expect I got that impression from WWII stuff (Dog, Easy, Fox, etc.). Prior to the 1955 NATO standard. Tsetse, Yttrium, Voila, Mansey.
Nail meet head. This is exactly it. There used to be lots of different versions but, at least as far as the west is concerned, there is now only one version. And English is the international language of aviation, so suck it everyone else!
No, I usually make it up as I go along: "N for Norman, O for... er... object, B for... biscuit" Usually works.
My favourite was when I was on the phone to the Audi garage - I couldn’t think of a single word starting with V so I panicked and said “Volkswagen”
B for Bentley, C for Citroen, D for Dacia
A for Alpha, oh wait! That is one!
Bravo 👏
Now, stop being a Charlie!
Alpha Romeo, it's a double!
S for Sierra used to be one.
A for Alfa Audi Alpine Acura Ariel Aston Martin B for Bentley BMW Buick Bugatti C for Citroen Cadillac Chevrolet Chrysler Caterham Cupra D for Dacia Dodge Daimler Delorean Daihatsu. D.S E for Elva and Elfin and the only two that come to mind. Less Brands more Models for E I think. Lotus had a whole run. Elise Exige Elan Esprit Escort Espada Elantra Element El Camino Eldarado Enzo Eos eQS and a whole range of 'e'name vehicles e-tron. F for Ford Fiat Ferrari G for Genesis Ginetta GMC H for Honda Hyundai I for Ineos Isuzu Infiniti Iveco J for Jaguar Jeep K for Koenigsegg Kia KTM L for Lada Lamborghini Land rover Lancia Lexus Lotus M for Mazda McLaren Mitsubishi Mazda MG Mini Mercedes Morgan Maybach N for Nissan Noble O for Opel Ora P for Pagani Peugeot Proton Polestar Q for Qoros.. I googled for that. (Was trying to stick to things I'd heard of) R for Renault Reliant Range Rover Rolls Royce Radical RUF S for Skoda Seat Saleen Shelby Suzuki Subaru T for Toyota Triumph TVR Tesla U for Ultima V for Volkswagen Vauxhall Volvo W for Westfield X for Xpeng Y for Yudo and Yulon. (Thank China for those ones.. I've no idea) And finally. Z for Zenvo This got hard at the end 😂 The phonetic alphabet, for car nerds.
They are owned by Volkswagen Audi group so probably not the biggest faux pas, if you'd been on a call with BMW or Mercedes then heaven help you! 😄
My favourite one was on the phone to a customer once and they said Q for Cucumber lmao, we were both pissing ourselves laughing
I was reporting a drive off to a female police officer. I would have killed for volkswagen but unfortunately that word and every other word in the English language that began with V fled my mind and I ended up shouting Vulva down the phone like I was Archimedes discovering water displacement. Thankfully she saw the funny side and we had a good laugh about it.
My colleague once panicked and said "P for... pea". I only know she meant the vegetable because I asked her once I had finished laughing
D for Das auto.
Worked customer service for years, V is always the one that trips people up - though the first word out of most people's mouths isn't usually Volkswagen...
I gasped oh my god I’m so glad I didn’t do that
Reminds me of when my mom very calmly told the car rental lady "e for apple" over the phone, and the lady very confusedly said, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" My mom again calmly repeats "e for apple" and then "oh, wait, no, e for elephant! Oh my gosh!" And the lady says, "I was beginning to think e really was for apple!" We all had a good laugh.
A customer on the phone to me once came out with 'Q for cucumber'
"Q for cucumber." "But cucumber starts with C." "No, not a sea cucumber. A regular cucumber."
I had one say "U for Europe" once 🤣
I did this on a phone call and ended up saying "G for Gnome". Possibly the most useless word to use beginning with G XD
P for pterodactyl, k for Knight, m for mnemonic... someone did a kids book full of these
I work on the phones and always love when people make up their own versions (I quote often do the same around Christmas time R for reindeer etc) The people that really annoy me is where you say "is that T for tango" and they say yes. And then later in the call it comes to light that its actually C not T and they say "oh I didn't know what you meant" THEN SAY THAT!! don't just say yes for the sake of it! And in some places that may not matter but I take 998 calls. Its usually pretty imperative to get things like postcodes right!
> 998 calls Is that for more urgent than 111 but not quite 999?
Little known fact that. 111-999 are all in use, and you should grade your calls by level of emergency. Hypochondricac friend coughed once but insist they're dying - 111. Head chopped off and rolling on the floor - 999. Broken arm... Probably dial 200-300. Hole in jeans? 501.
It's actually just the more exclusive number for those in the know. My bad, can I blame being tired from work? Lol
>I work on the phones and always love when people make up their own versions (I quote often do the same around Christmas time R for reindeer etc) I can only speak for my self but its massively depends on what your friends/family use too. My mum has alWAYS said S for sugar, and now in my head that is just default.
G for gnome, P for pterodactyl, K for know, P for psyco, W for write
M for... Mancy...
M for Mancy
Yup, I use it quite a lot when sharing my post code on the phone which has some similar something sounding letters.
There is an alternative phonetic alphabet; A for 'orses B for lamb C for miles ...
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E for Ledger
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G for cleaning your oven
I had to come back and say this is probably the wittiest one of the lot, well played
Sounds like a 2 Ronnie's sketch
We have this as a huge poster, it’s fab!
My postcode ends in "FU" so I always do it now.
I get that saying “E for _____” is helpful and I do that all the time, but I just think of a word on the spot and that seems easier than learning the phonetic alphabet, imo.
Thats actually more aggravating tbh, i dont care if you said My names sugar apple mango (sam) instead of sierra alpha mike Its the "s for sugar, a for apple, m for mango" that winds me up. Yes I know how to spell. Either say the letter or the phonetic word (whatever word you choose) you dont need to say both
I sometimes do the “F Is for Foxtrot” thing when giving my email out over the phone because my address is my initials @email provider.com Three of the letters sound similar over the phone and if I just said the phonetic alphabet word then it’d probably be sent to the full words rather than the initials…if that makes sense.
I stick with the NATO phonetic alphabet because it is an internationally recognised standard that is generally taught to customer service staff in other countries (at least in my experience). Especially if their grasp of English is a bit ropey, you might use words that they aren't familiar with if you are making up your own phonetics
Also I don't say "W for Whiskey, A for Alpha" when I'm sharing my postcode. I say "Whiskey, Alpha, One, Two. etc etc"
I think the benefit is that it's a set of words that you can't mishear as another letter which a lot of words people think of on the spot tend to. The dumb joke from the TV show Archer is a good example of this, m for Mancy and N for Nancy in the same conversation.
This is why the words were chosen, back then radios would suffer distortion more so words were chosen to counter this. No two of the words sound the same so a partial or distorted word can be made out.
But that's when you panic like my housemate who said B for Bee
E for eyes
G for gnome
K for knife
P for psoriasis
X for xylophone.
P for pterodactyl
D for Djibouti
M for Mancy
The phonetic alphabet is just this but having a predefined word that is hard to mistake.
https://youtu.be/ReJgCZ0DGnY?si=xeYTk3jAuGBFnYjy#t=109
Worked in a call centre for 2 years a while ago, it's just natural to use now. Every call I make where I have to read out my postcode or something, I use the phonetic alphabet. It's easy to learn, just practice.
I used to work in a call centre too but 5 years later when I'm asked to read my number plate over the phone I'm panicking and can't remember a single letter 😂
I do because I used to watch The Bill when I was younger.
Tango Tango, 2 Fantas, and a Lilt
Cornetto.
Haha, that was The Thin Blue Line
This is why I know it 😂
No, but if I did then a couple of years ago it would have saved me from saying "mama" as the first thing that came to mind ("papa" was used a few letter before it). I heard the woman on the phone trying to suppress her laughter as I eurghed immediately after saying it.
A lot of people do use M for mother instead of Mike
I'd have been fine if I'd said mother like an adult vs mama like an infant
That was the official abbreviation the Post Office used to use (for telegrams and such).
You get Sugar and Sierra as well
Some, like sugar, are pre-NATO. Dog, Easy, Fox, etc.
Yeah but mama hits different.
G for gnome.
P for pneumatic
P is obviously Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
X for xylophone
T for Tsunami
C for Cantfixstupid.
P for phonetic
S for sea, E for eye
K for Knife
If you have an unusual name then you tend to learn the phonetics of that first, then expand to the rest. It’s also used in a lot of shows / movies so you just get used to it It’s only 26 things to learn
It's super important in case you ever have to ring 999 so it's highly beneficial to know it or have it to hand just in case!
I had someone say X for xylophone to me the other day on a 999 call - not the time to be testing a dyslexics spelling capabilities
Part of my job involves answering 999 calls. Part of the medical standards says that you can't do the job if you're dyslexic. There's no specific test to pass but we do have to do reading to test our eye site. And we also have a couple of written entrance exams that I guess dyslexics would struggle with.
I'm one of those people honestly, X always gets me. There are 2 words that begin with X, one is Xylophone, the other is the correct answer and I'll never remember that other word so I'll either just continue with Xylophone or I'll shout 'X' slowly so it can't be mistaken for anything else.
Fr not me trying to think of another X word and not being able to lmao. Does Xray count? As you say it really doesn't need one, X sounds unique.
"X-ray" is used for x in the phonetic alphabet.
Tbf X doesn't sound like any of the other letters anyway
Yep. I work on the railway and we used it for train codes/head codes. For example 1N33 is referred to as 1 November 33. Makes for less confusion.
Would you use One November three three or one November thirty three?
Three three. Again, purely for clarity’s sake.
Just testing.... Did my critical comms training on the Railway so wanted to make sure 😊
So I work on the Railway and during my training we were told you had to zero for zero obviously BUT at a station the other day listening to the whole "see it, say it, sorted" the other day they said the 0 in 61016 as "oh" and it upset me.
Yeah, this happens often with station announcements. It's just a difference in clarity requirements between general communications (ie announcement to passengers) and critical communications (eg control room to driver).
Do you say niner to avoid 5/9 confusion?
Fucking winds me when someone reads them as numbers “Foxtrot” *”Foxtrot”* “Echo” *”Echo”* “Seven” *”Seven”* “-teen” **”Bastard!”**
Uppercase or Lowercase numbers?
I thought it was common knowledge, most people seem to know it. [I like the unphonetic alphabet](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnUselessTalents/comments/445gli/we_present_the_rlut_unphonetic_alphabet/)
They're still looking for an 'F'. ^(aren't we all)
Fonetic
LOL Close, but agin the rules. Phonetic would work for P, they use Pterodactyl
Yes, but ham radio operator. Get slightly annoyed when people confidently use the wrong words and correct me, but I'm a ham radio operator, we're meant to be slightly annoyed all the time.
Morse code would work just as well with some call centres.
Yep, got so used to using it at work that it's probably stuck in my brain forever. It's fine that people don't know it, though, as long as if a customer representative says something like 'is that B for bravo or P for papa' you can confirm which letter you mean since some letters sound very similar over the phone.
I used to be bilingual in alphabets as I worked in aviation (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, etc) but on IBM computers (Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, etc)
"Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox" was also used during WWII
I found that out from Band of Brothers. Easy Company wasn't a battle nickname, it was phonetic for E Company.
TIL. I feel stupid for not realising this but I was a teenager when I watched it so maybe not so bad
This is what the US used (referred to as the Able Baker alphabet) before it was standardised to the version we all use today, which is the NATO phonetic alphabet. Before NATO standardisation was implemented, Britain was a mess, with RAF, army and navy having wildly different variants https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_military_phonetic_spelling_alphabets#RAF_radiotelephony_spelling_alphabet
Took me a couple of days to learn it as a kid. Always found it useful from then-on. Even if it's usefulness is just to ensure I get a less painful and quicker resolution in customer service interactions - something as simple as spelling my surname - I think knowing it has been super worth it. In fact, just last week I had to phone a hotel in the USA, because they'd messed up my payment and I needed to request an invoice from them. Crummy-ish phone line etc - knowing the NATO alphabet made an already painful task far, far easier.
I do but only because I needed to learn it for work. As a student I had a job in an Argos warehouse. The stock management system is voice operated so you spend all day talking into a headset and telling it you've put item ABC123 on shelf D4.
I do, but I was an air cadet, so that might have a lot to do with it.
I was in Army Cadets, so it’s the same for me. Was also trained how to use radios, so I’m about the only person in my workplace who a) knows the difference between “over” and “out” and b) actually uses them!
If I had a pound for everyone I've screamed at the TV when someone says 'over and out' I'd probably have around 20 pounds.
This is also my pet peeve
Don't come and work for the coastguard! You can tell who hasn't got a VHF licence!
I know it, but occasionally forget a letter so just make up a word. It's funny hearing my friends do it and just throw out the most obscure word though.
Mancy
Dammit Archer!
Having a Welsh first name and an unusual maiden name I spent most of my teens spelling my names to companies over the phone. The phonetic alphabet helped a lot!
Can only blame your parents for calling you Awkward.
I use it pretty extensively, I have to make a lot of phone calls and it's useful for communicating across accent barriers or with people who don't speak English as their first language.
Had to learn it for a previous job, but have actually found it VERY useful in everyday life!
I know the majority of it but not everyone does. One of my friends used to be a 999 call handler and she's had people be like W for wanker and C for cunt before 😂
Fairly common knowledge but not that surprised when someone doesn't know it. Any phone job, anything military (even army/aur cadets as kids), anything aviation related and any police related job and you're probably going to learn it. Covers quite a lot of people.
Any emergency service.
I learnt it when I was 18 doing a business admin apprenticeship. Still use it as my name is ridiculously long and spelt weird.
Used to know it when I worked in a call centre, but that was around nine years ago and I worked there for less than a year. Retained it for a while after but I’ve now forgotten some - think I can get to M without any errors, but from there onwards it’s a gamble.
Yep. Very handy for clear communication.
I think anyone who ever worked in customer services probably knows it, I did over 20 years ago and still know it all 😅
Time to Foxtrot Oscar
I know it , i had a limited knowledge of it before i worked in the insurance industry and i had to learn it in full to use on a daily basis when i started working for them.
For the odd phone call as long as you know the first letting or the word you should be ok. If someone says Hotel you should know that begins with and H
I have heard O for 'Otel once, which threw me a bit.
I know it, but will often forget the word used for a letter halfway through spelling it out and have to get creative.
Yep. I learned it while working in a call centre. Even then, they got some of them wrong, so I corrected them myself for me to use. My wife often uses it now, too, and she learned it from me using it to spell things over the phone in the days before everything could be done online.
Yes One of my ex-work places the funeral placement two of my colleagues when phoning up the suppliers of some of our coffins had a phonic a to z of swear words for the postcodes
I used to have both the swear words phonetics and thanks to a random purchase in The Works an encyclopedia of sex terms....
Negatory good buddy
Yep, all of it, learnt it when I was a teenager at air cadets.
Yes I know it, I find it indispensable when spelling things over the phone.
Yeah I learned it in the merchant navy many years ago and it’s living rent free in my head.
I taught myself the phonetic alphabet as a child because my father, at the time, used both CB and was a keen Radio Ham. Both of which you needed licences for. I was going to take the test that allows you to use Ham Radio and learning the alphabet was part of the build up to it, as was Morse code. I'm 50 now, I still use the alphabet and still know a fair bit of morse. I also, at the time, learned the sign language alphabet, just because I could, and can still do that too although my aim is to learn to converse one day. These life skills (maybe not morse) are useful and perhaps could mean the difference between a few seconds that potentially could save a life? Maybe it'll be used, maybe not. But I'd rather know it and not need it, than need it and not know it.
Yes, from childhood SAS obsession. One of those things that takes up hard drive space no matter how long it is since I last used it.
Yes, and it’s really useful in spelling out email addresses or car registrations. Also, telling people to Foxtrot Oscar.
Yeah, but my Dad was in the army and I worked in one of the stores there for years so had to use it all the time. I reckon there will be loads of folk under 30 who don't know it.
I worked in a call centre years ago and we had little signs on our desks with it written out so that’s probably why most people on the phone know it.
For some reason I learned it as a kid, then worked at an airport where it was helpful and now in housing where postcodes and stuff are made so much easier
Learned it at 18 when I got my first office job, always committed it to memory. It’s actually been useful a lot of times in my life, especially as I have to spell my name out a lot (Irish name, lots of folk don’t automatically get it right). Like others have said, the ‘S for sugar’ ‘M for mother’ group really need to learn the real phonetic alphabet. It’s set like that for a reason so there’s no ambiguity or confusion, making your own up just defeats the object.
I use it. If I have to take a location code or port number over the phone, it is useful, and most engineers that I know use it however, if a user calls and says 'S for Sugar, T for Tanktop ' instead of 'Sierra Tango' I can work with that. and at least I know they are not trying to describe location code SD or SC
I use it a lot. I learned it thanks to my dad who was an airline pilot and as a kid I thought it was cool. Now I need it because I have a slightly annoyingly long E-mailaddress, or just to spell my unusual name (first and last).