Voice and Accent Training:

After completion of 3 days induction ceremony I was moved into training. The process allotted to me was a voice technical process. That means I was supposed to answer calls made by people who were 15000 miles away from me. Since the accent that we Indian speak and an American speaks is different therefore an accent trainer is allotted to you. This accent trainer trains you to speak in American accent or speaking precisely a neutral accent.

The other candidates who are with you are your colleagues for work. So you make good friends out of them. The Voice and Accent training known as VNA training is a preprocess training where you are groomed for a BPO job. Here people learn to speak, learn to behave and learn to stay wake up in nights. Yes to stay wake up in nights. Mine process was a US process, so I was supposed to work in night shifts. Initially the candidates start sleeping in training, start napping, but you will never be scolded for this but will be encouraged to work. But this is only tolerated in VNA training and that is why guys your VNA training period is known as your Honey-Moon period in BPO. You dare not sleep in your process training, or you may get a sweet warning letter for this.

In VNA, Voice and Accent training first some confidence building measurements are taken to boost your confidence. Because it’s usual, to speak properly you need to have confidence in yourself. This confidence is built up in you through out the training by different tricks and games. We were asked to read a para from book on mic in front of all people. First, the hall is very big, second the stairing eyes at you and third the trainer who is ready to assess your accent as you read the text. It is difficult for many people to complete the paragraph on mic. But as and when the training is finished in 2-3 months you will find a 100% difference in these people. Shy people will start speaking, losers will start winning.

As the games and training proceeds we come to know each other, we make good friends here. The trainer teaches us how to pronounce words and it will start right from A,B,C,D,…,Z.. Open your mouth, roll your R’s, Open mouth wide, these will be most commonly used words in training room. Trainer will ask you to read new papers loudly, listen to American channels (News only) etc. The motive behind this training is to remove the Mother Tongue Influence (MTI) from your accent. Ideally the listener should not come to know your origin from your accent.

You will have to listen many recorded calls, and trainer will ask you question like, what was customers pone no? What was his problem? What was solution provided? Etc. the first call that I heard was all mess for me rather whole batch. No one could even understand a single word, thanks to American accent. But we were made listen to calls again and again, which taught us to understand American accent. And after few days we were answering these questions confidently.

The VNA training is a time that you really enjoy. You ask for breaks which are unscheduled and the fun is we were used to ask “SLEEP BREAK” for first few days. We all were used to take a short sleep in that break. Our trainer Ms. Smita was very nice person. She groomed us properly. The facilities provided to employee in Infosys BPO are really very good. The coffee vending machines are there to provide you coffee 24by7. The cafeteria is open 24by7. The security provided is also very good. In short I can say the facilities are best in its class.

No one expects you to speak in US accent in one month but remember if there is no improvement in your accent or there is heavy MTI in your accent you will not be sent to process training but a seven day re-training. And even though you have a strong MTI, this will lead to change in your process reason being non-performance. (One should feel insulting about it, common you can’t be a non-performer)

Throughout the training, trainer will keep your record. Test will be taken after completion of training which includes mock call, if you pass this test you will be sent to process training. If not back to re-training.

---

Share this article with your friends, use buttons below:

---