Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 60, Calling Technical Support.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 60.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
In this episode, we're going to discuss calling tech support for help with your computer.
Let's get started.
I recently signed up for a new ISP for my office using DSL.
I managed to get the modem and the router configured properly, but now my email won't work.
I dug out the manual that came with the modem and called the toll-free line for technical support.
I'm not a big fan of most IT departments, but if something doesn't work, they're the only game in town.
I explained to the tech support person that I couldn't get my email to send or receive.
He asked me if I had checked the Ethernet connection from the modem to the router, and I said I did.
Then he asked me if I had run any diagnostics on the email software and if I was able to connect to the web.
I said no to both of these questions.
He told me he would submit a ticket and have the problem escalated to the next level.
Someone should be calling me back, he said.
I won't hold my breath.
I began the podcast by saying that I signed up for a new ISP for my office.
To sign up for something means to register or to purchase something.
Usually we sign up for some sort of service that someone is going to give me or to give us.
I signed up here means I bought a new ISP.
ISP stands for or means Internet Service Provider.
This is the company that provides you with Internet access in your home or in your office.
I was signing up for a DSL company. internet service.
DSL is a internet connection that comes over your phone lines.
The other type of connection would be a cable internet connection, where it comes through a separate cable that is used to bring you your cable television stations.
But I'm talking about a DSL, which is a phone connection.
It's a fast connection.
It's not a dial-up connection.
A dial-up connection is not very fast.
DSL is much faster, and cable is usually faster than DSL in the United States.
Anyway, I said I managed to get the modem and the router configured properly.
To manage something means that you succeeded, you were successful in something.
I managed to find a chair in the crowded classroom.
Uh, To manage also means to work with people.
To be the manager of someone or some people means that you are sort of the boss.
But here, the verb to manage, to get, using it with another verb, means that you were successful.
I managed to call my father last night.
I had some difficulty, but I managed to do it.
The modem is the part of your computer that connects so that you can get on the internet or get on email.
A router is kind of a box.
The box will divide or split up the signal to the other computers.
They can each have their own wire that connects to the router, or it could be a wireless router.
A wireless router is a router that you don't need wires for.
It's a router that works usually on what we call Wi-Fi W-I-F-I, where the computers can communicate with the internet connection without having any wires connecting them.
It's a wireless connection, just like your cell phone is a wireless phone.
There are no wires to connect it to a telephone line.
It works through radio waves, if you will, in the air.
You can tell that I am not a computer expert.
I said that I configured the router and modem properly.
To configure a piece of machine or a piece of software means that you set it up.
You... made sure that all the parts were connected correctly.
That you made sure that all of the information was provided in the software, for example.
That is to configure something.
I said that I dug out my manual that came with the modem.
To dig out literally means to take a shovel and put it in the ground to get rid of dirt.
That tool we use to get rid of dirt or to dig a hole is called a shovel.
But when we say I dug out my manual or I dug out my... my pictures in the drawer.
We mean that it was put away in such a manner that it was difficult to find or that we didn't have it easily available to us.
So I dug out my manual and And I called the toll-free number for technical support, the toll-free line, I said
Toll-free means you probably know you don't have to pay for the call.
In the United States, these were, up until recently, these were all 800 numbers.
So instead of dialing 310-555-1212, you would dial 800-555-1212.
The 800 means it didn't cost you any money.
By the way, in television and in movies, we often use the number 555-1212.
That's not a real telephone number.
It's what we call a phony or a false number.
And people will use it when they're giving an example and they don't want to give a real telephone number.
I will not give my real telephone number here on the podcast.
A toll-free line or a number is here.
The line is really a telephone number for technical support.
Technical support is, as you probably know, the people you talk to when there is something wrong with your computer.
I said I'm not a big fan of most IT departments.
To be a fan of something means to like something or like a group of people.
You can be a fan of a football team, for example.
IT stands for information technology.
These are the computer people who build computers and program software for computers and so forth.
I said that unfortunately, they're the only game in town, meaning there's no one else that you can call.
When we say he's the only game in town, we mean he's the only person who can do a certain thing.
I called the tech support person, and we sometimes say tech support instead of technical support.
It's the same thing.
I called the tech support person.
And they asked me to check my Ethernet connection.
Now, an Ethernet connection is just a special type of computer connection we use usually with connecting to the Internet, though you can also use it to connect to computers, to transfer files between computers.
Do not ask me how to do that, however.
I don't know.
The tech support person asked me if I had run any diagnostics.
A diagnostic.
The verb here is to diagnose, which means to figure out or to discover what is wrong with something.
So diagnostics means that in many software programs you can run a program that will check to see what is wrong with your program or with your computer.
I said I was not able to connect to the web.
We use that verb to connect, meaning we are able to communicate with the connection, if you will, and be able to get on the internet.
That's called connecting to the web.
The technical support person said he would submit a ticket.
Here to submit a ticket, or we sometimes say a trouble ticket means that he's going to fill out a form.
He's going to fill out a piece of paper or type in a form on the computer and send it to someone else who will try to help me.
Submitting a trouble ticket to an IT department means that you are telling them what the problem is and asking them to help.
The problem in my case was escalated to the next level.
To escalate a problem, To escalate anything means to bring it to a higher level, to raise it up.
Here it means that the supervisor or the person who has more knowledge will look at my problem.
I ended by saying that I was told someone would call me back or call me on the telephone, but I said I won't hold my breath.
The expression don't hold your breath or I won't hold my breath.
Your breath, of course, is what you breathe.
Okay, that's your breath, the air that comes in and out of your body.
To hold your breath would be, of course, to stop breathing.
But when we say I won't hold my breath, we mean I don't expect anything to happen, that I don't think this person will actually call me in this case.
Now let's listen to the story again at a normal rate of speech.
I recently signed up for a new ISP for my office using DSL.
I managed to get the modem and the router configured properly, but now my email won't work.
I dug out the manual that came with the modem and called the toll-free line for technical support.
I'm not a big fan of most IT departments, but if something doesn't work, they're the only game in town.
I explained to the tech support person that I couldn't get my email to send or receive.
He asked me if I had checked the Ethernet connection from the modem to the router, and I said I did.
Then he asked if I had run any diagnostics on the email software and if I was able to connect to the web.
I said no to both of these questions.
He told me he would submit a ticket and have the problem escalated to the next level.
Someone should be calling me back, he said.
I won't hold my breath.
Thanks to our fantastic script writer, Dr. Lucy Say, for her hard work.
And thanks to you for listening.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
