This video brought to you in part by our Patrons over on Patreon. If you’d like to support our efforts here directly, and our continued efforts to improve our videos, as well as do more ultra in-depth long form videos that built in ads and even sponsors don’t always cover fully, check out our Patreon page and perks here: www.patreon.com/TodayIFoundOut And as ever, thanks for watching!
@SlavTiger5 ай бұрын
thanks for this info, ii have added this alphabet to my emergency radio manual for reference.
@RubyDoobieScoo5 ай бұрын
Was the other part brought to us by Coca Cola?
@Mike-zx1kx5 ай бұрын
Now what has "Ø" for Øresund and "Æ" for Ægir done to be left out?
@UnclePengy5 ай бұрын
And you didn't even delve into regional phonetic alphabets such as the famous APCO (aka LAPD) radio alphabet, which I believe is still in use today, and which is the alphabet I learned growing up thanks to the famous TV series Adam-12 and Dragnet. (But then I became a Ham, and now I know two.) Well, maybe you can do a sequel.
@wamlartmuse175 ай бұрын
Joe momma!
@StormCaller55 ай бұрын
Lol we had a really smart dog that would lose his mind when we even spelled walk. Tried whiskey-alpha-lima-kilo for a while. He caught on to that, too 😂
@jmr5 ай бұрын
I'm not sure if my dog knows how walk and ride are spelled or if he just recognizes that we are spelling but either way he knows. 😂
@PeterSwinkels5 ай бұрын
Same with a dog my parents used to own. 🤣
@Marcus-ki1en5 ай бұрын
Our Greyhound not only learned W-A-L-K spelling but K-L-A-W, and we thought we were so smart. We tried spelling nonsense words to see if she was hitting on the spelling only, but she would only get excited when we spelled that word.
@Consumpter5 ай бұрын
dogs probably correlate the sounds of the letters as similar to sounds of words so as long as they hear a certain group of sounds they assume it means the same thing every time
@siliconwolverine5 ай бұрын
My morkie knows the same but it’s “outside” and “treat”
@Hillbilly0015 ай бұрын
US Army vet here, 78-90. Was the RTO for my company commander and using the phonetic alphabet was second nature. Still use it today when I have to spell something out over the phone. LoL.. Cheers from Tennessee
@smithandshortdogs5 ай бұрын
USAF... filled army ILO spots for a decade (04-12) was an RTO as well, but knew the alphabet before that because 2t1s have to learn it in tech school (That is 88m and AIT for you ground pounders).
@jeffdroog5 ай бұрын
Regular person here,and I also know this alphabet,because it was taught to me in kindergarten lol You don't have to wear camouflage to figure this out lol
@jimmym33525 ай бұрын
one of the first things we learned in boot camp in the Navy. Something you'll use over sound powered phones all the time. Though certain letters are used more than others.
@innobius48985 ай бұрын
Worst thing is when you instinctively use the NATO phonetics alphabet and a civilian says "hang on I can't write that fast" Oh God now I have to explain what a phonetic alphabet is.
@jeffdroog5 ай бұрын
@jimmym3352 Navy flex! Eh-oh! I like how we apparently have all these manly vets just sitting around all day waiting to brag about how they used to be something lol Good job!
@CujoHyer5 ай бұрын
You don't realize how important this stuff is until you're a dispatcher dealing with active crime scenes, or people's lives hanging in the balance. It's wild stuff, when you need it most.
@mycroft_moriarty5 ай бұрын
It's even weirder when you're the only person on the line who uses it...
@SlavTiger5 ай бұрын
or if war breaks out
@tremorsfan5 ай бұрын
We used to use it when I worked at Dulles. So many letters sound the same.
@PaulHarris-sl1ct5 ай бұрын
I have noticed that most law enforcement use names like "A as in Adam" I personally prefer "T as in Oolong"
@DonFahquidmi5 ай бұрын
@@PaulHarris-sl1ct Or perhaps T as in Earl Grey.
@ThorsonWiles5 ай бұрын
Yes, and after having been a civilian for nearly 30 years, when I hear people in my office spelling items phonetically using non-nato words, and even using different words for the same letter in the SAME interaction ... I developed a twich. Once when a person got it right, I cheered and bought them lunch.
@mattiemathis95495 ай бұрын
After the army I went into law enforcement. My agency used nato, but other agencies used words like Adam and David, so I got used to the different words. But yes, when the customer service representative says, “B as in boy, B as in Bob”, it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.
@stpnwlf95 ай бұрын
Following an air traffic control career, one of the great annoyances has been customer service types on the phone using nons-standard phonetics to spell things out. The pain is real.
@alexdryver50905 ай бұрын
I learned NATO phonetic as a truck driver. If your job involves strings of letters and numbers being spoken you should know NATO phonetic. It's easier to understand and more professional then "B as in boy".
@uchinanchuu585 ай бұрын
Same here except I'm still in ATC...
@ryanjohnson6285 ай бұрын
YES!! Along with the whole wasted words of “B as in boy…”
@gullinvarg5 ай бұрын
I had the NATO alphabet taped to my monitor when I worked on an IT help desk. I figured there was already a perfectly good phonetic alphabet that existed so why try to come up with my own? 😉
@conradhershberger93595 ай бұрын
@@gullinvarg I memorized it when I did a year of IT phone support. That was 15 years ago, and I still use it.
@jonbroadsword75725 ай бұрын
Two of the nurses on the TV series MASH were called Nurse Able and Nurse Baker.
@DoIGetTube5 ай бұрын
In more modern times, those same two would have been called Nurses Alpha and Bravo respectively.
@BradHouser5 ай бұрын
One of the few channels on KZbin that teaches me new words. I now know what acrophonic means. (An alphabet when the words of the letters begin with the letter). Thank you Simon.
@EggsOverSleazy5 ай бұрын
US Navy vet. 05-13. Still use the phonetic alphabet. Wicked useful.
@randalmayeux88805 ай бұрын
What part of Boston are you from?
@samking72135 ай бұрын
I'm an Australian Army Vet. Same years, 05 to 13
@eddarby4695 ай бұрын
Army NG still use it from the 80s.
@jammiebooker64895 ай бұрын
Bravo Zulu
@blindbrad47195 ай бұрын
I've used it to stay awake driving. Spelling things out with it including the phonetic spelling alphabet both forwards and backwards 😂
@omquark28955 ай бұрын
I worked in tech support, over the phone of course, and I learned and used this because a lot of people I talked to could already communicate with it. It made my life a lot easier.
@jamiekirkland24745 ай бұрын
I work in the aviation industry and I did not expect to learn anything new about the NATO phonetic alphabet when I clicked on this video. I never realized that alfa and Juliett have different spelling than a native English speaker would expect. Very interesting history of the various standards!
@jeffweber82445 ай бұрын
I occasionally need to use them verbally myself. But I'm not sure when I'd ever write them down to note their spelling.
@jamiekirkland24745 ай бұрын
@@jeffweber8244 I learned the alphabet decades ago at 10 years old (because I was a weird kid) and I don't think I have seen the alphabet written out since.
@bite-sizedshorts96355 ай бұрын
It's not NATO invented. They just adopted it in 1956, but it was in use already for many decades.
@_PITBOY5 ай бұрын
Look at this. Lovely video edit. No vignette, no old film filter, nothing to distract from the simple transfer of the information of the story. Unlike another of Simons channels. An actual pro editor here ... nice.
@platypus01au5 ай бұрын
Thanks for this! As an ex-signaller from the Australian Army Reserve, this is seared into my brain. Fascinating to learn how it came about.
@sarameitner67705 ай бұрын
This is phenomenal. I teach the NATO alphabet numerous times a year - and have done some research into various earlier English forms (there are SO MANY and each language has its own as well!). This deep research and chronological report is very welcome. I will definitely be recommending it to people who want more in depth background information as to the evolution of the (eventual) NATO alphabet.
@route20705 ай бұрын
Yes making up my own phoenetic alphabet out of frustration while on the phone.
@highpath47765 ай бұрын
Hay for Horses, Beef or Dinner, See for yourself, Dee for Kate, Effort ,
@jimmyzhao26735 ай бұрын
Brandon at Talladega, the crowd chanting.
@Jessepigman695 ай бұрын
D for dave o for....... August...... wait that's not an o..... "Sir it is OK, calm down"
@jamesonmiller82835 ай бұрын
Yes of course: P as in Pterodactyl, S as in Sea, A as in Aye, E as in Eye, L as in Llama, M as in Mnemonic, C as in Cay, K as in Knight
@danreyn5 ай бұрын
"No my name is Carry, not Terri. That's C as in Crane, A as in Avery, R's like Railroad, and Y like Yike. No! Not Terri. How are you not getting this!?"
@frankunderbush5 ай бұрын
About 10 years ago I had my first job doing customer service at a call center, and I ended up unironically using this system because the modern phone connections are still crap. It felt a bit weird at first to use some of the more unconventional words but they are definitely distinct enough to never be mixed up with anything else. Fast forward to today, when I speak to customer service of whatever god forsaken cable company that I need to speak to, I do the same on my end to avoid confusion. On top of helping with bad phone connections, it also helps the numerous customer service reps who don't speak English as their first language.
@UtilityCurve5 ай бұрын
Apparently, the current service standards for fidelity/intelligibility are much lower for cellular telephony than mid-20th Century wired lines. A fair number of us remember the long-distance (and it is only a number of us who grok the concept of "long-distance" itself) carrier Sprint and its famous pin-dropping. No free lunch.
@dragonhealer75885 ай бұрын
@@UtilityCurve TANSTAAFL 😊
@rhaedas90855 ай бұрын
@@UtilityCurve My dislike for cellular phone conversation happened sometime in the early 2000s when analog got quickly replaced with the more modern digital encoding. The human ear can fill in gaps in a message with some static, but the cutout that digital has when data is lost is terrible. Same issue with video, as a kid I remember still managing to watch a badly tuned channel on the TV, unlike a digital signal that gets blocky.
@michaelsommers23565 ай бұрын
I find myself confusing an improperly pronounced QUEBEC with the letter K.
@kah101615 ай бұрын
Amen to that! Definitely came in handy for open gas accounts in the Midwest.
@charlottehardy8225 ай бұрын
I was taught this as a kid and it’s second nature for me to use it when spelling things out over the phone.
@Loves_three_kitties5 ай бұрын
So great that know the history of the phonetic alphabet. I married a naval aviator in 1969. During our very short engagement realized my being able to learn not learning the phonetic alphabet would be a game changer. We have been married for 54 years!
@danlabok71175 ай бұрын
🎉congratulations🎉 54 year's is amazing nowadays!
@ChristophBrinkmann5 ай бұрын
@@danlabok7117 54 years is amazing in any era (unless the marriage has one or two abusive people.)
@jackturner2145 ай бұрын
Mazel Tov! My wife also caught on to the phonetic alphabet pretty quickly when she married this former airdale (though I was no longer in the Navy); one of the things that made me smile the biggest was a couple of months into our marriage when she referred to her sneakers as "go fasters." We'll have been married 21 years on next Saturday, provided she keeps me that long 😁 Fly Navy!
@csjrogerson23775 ай бұрын
Bravo Zulu.
@bite-sizedshorts96355 ай бұрын
Except he was lying about it originating with NATO. It was in use from the beginning of radio in the US.
@Perry21865 ай бұрын
As a mechanic, I use a phenonic alphabet to read Vin numbers to get parts when I was a firefighter. We used Phenonic alphabet for radio communication
@jeffdroog5 ай бұрын
You were a mechanic,or a firefighter? Get your lies straight lol
@@Perry2186 I'm a little shocked neither of those jobs,or the years apparently required to do them,ever required you to write a coherent sentence lol
@Perry21865 ай бұрын
@jeffdroog talk to text doesn't work great with a southern accent. Also, I was driving proof reading wasn't a priority
@richiehoyt84875 ай бұрын
@@jeffdroog Always reassuring to see the Internet Police out and about and keeping busy.
@Tremblox5 ай бұрын
Fantastically researched and presented. Zero fluff and highly informative. Well done and thank you!
@anthonyholroyd53595 ай бұрын
Armed forces, aviation industry - yeh. But also the police, ambulance service, fire service and (my own industry) the railways. Any industry where clear, unambiguous communication is vital? You will find the NATO phonetic alphabet being used. We dont use 'Foo-er', 'Fife' or 'Niner', but we do follow the protocol of verbalising individual numbers and letters. In the UK, each train operating over Network Rail infrastructure has a designated 'headcode' (like a flight number) that is formed of a number, a letter and two further nunbers. The first number indicates the priority of the service (e.g. 1 = express passenger train; 2 = local or stopping passenger train. 5 = a passenger train out of service . . . I.e. empty coaching stock). The letter indicates the route the train is running on - whilst the final two numbers identify the train. For example - 1A37 might be a train from Glasgow to Aberdeen. The '1' designates it as an express passenger train The 'A' as a train from the Scottish central belt, bound for Aberdeen The '3' and '7' tell you exactly which train that day is heading to Aberdeen. The train and hour earlier in the same route might have been '1A35', the train an hour behind '1A39'. Lets keep with '1A37'. Any communication between the driver, conductor, signaller or network control regarding this train would have '1A37' read and spoken as 'One Alpha Three Seven'. Likewise: 1B07 would be verbalised as 'One Bravo Zero Seven'
@SteelWolf135 ай бұрын
Except civillian services use the names. Adam Baker charlie. Eww....
I can remember my father using this alphabet in the late 1950's. I didn't realise it was so new. I had to memorise it in 1963 to do school over the radio.
@repentantconservative70305 ай бұрын
Amateur (HAM) radio operator here. This is second nature for me. Still used today in the Amateur Service.
@TubeLVT5 ай бұрын
The term “ham”is not an acronym. It should not be written in all capitals.
@SomeYouTubeGuy5 ай бұрын
I work in an IT call centre and it frustrates me to no end that the NATO alphabet isn't taught or enforced by management.
@pithicus525 ай бұрын
When I was stationed in Japan, all the bar maids in the bars near the front gate of the base spoke English so we would spell out words using the phonetic alphabet. "Interrogative Yankee Echo November" meant "how many yen do you have". Obviously not something that we wanted the bar maids to know.
@Drew-bc7zj5 ай бұрын
But how did you answer without them knowing? Start blurting out numbers and of course they'll be thinking money, right?
@pithicus525 ай бұрын
@@Drew-bc7zj Just gave general values. "Lots, not much, etc." No, definitely did not give numbers because that would have meant pulling out our wallets and did not want to expose the contents of our wallets if at all possible.
@Drew-bc7zj5 ай бұрын
@@pithicus52 Afraid they'd have an accomplice rob you, or was it scams perpetrated on customers, like overcharging or watering down drinks?
@pithicus525 ай бұрын
@@Drew-bc7zj The bar maids were only served from a special bottle of "whiskey" that the customers were never served from. And yes it was expensive.
@Drew-bc7zj5 ай бұрын
@@pithicus52 Were you forced to buy them drinks? It's not like there was a chance they were going home with you.
@Fred_Lougee5 ай бұрын
Bravo Zulu. You did a video on the phonetic alphabet without making it a complete Charlie Foxtrot.
@benn4545 ай бұрын
Coulda been a real SNAFU. That would've been really FUBAR.
@cycoholic5 ай бұрын
@@benn454Then he would have had to bohica. 😂
@benn4545 ай бұрын
@@cycoholic The Green Weenie comes for us all.
@mringasa18485 ай бұрын
This entire video was just a troll to get Simon to say "monkey nuts" in a video, right? Good one. Always neat to see the beginnings of something that is so ubiquitous.
@ridesq5 ай бұрын
London Monkey Nuts.
@marklittle88055 ай бұрын
Most of the videos he has to say something silly ...his writers entrap him all the time
@simontay48515 ай бұрын
What do you mean - his writers. He writes the script.
@positivevibesveda4 ай бұрын
@@simontay4851he does not, mostly just reads the scripts. he has several channels & the joke across them is he keeps his writers in his basement.
@madelinecox41015 ай бұрын
"King Philip Caught One Fish Going South" will always be the way that I remember Kindom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
@bigolbearthejammydodger65275 ай бұрын
kp crisps only fry good spuds was ours. and lets not forget Naughty elephants squirt water either ;)
@redheadmetalhead2475 ай бұрын
Kings Park Cars On Fresh Gold Streets
@Debbie3385 ай бұрын
That’s excellent!
@slackerman97585 ай бұрын
Knave Pterodactyl Czars Oil Fjord Gnat Symbols
@bruceanderson90035 ай бұрын
King Phillip Called Out For Good Soup
@pogue9725 ай бұрын
I used to work in tech/customer support over the phone and ended up, in fact, print out a copy of the NATO alphabet to have a reference when I had to spell things out over the phone as opposed to trying to come up with words on the fly. It was hung on my cubicle wall & co-workers ended up asking me about it and adopting the practice as well.
@bite-sizedshorts96355 ай бұрын
It's not NATO. It's military. It was used way before NATO started.
@pogue9725 ай бұрын
@@bite-sizedshorts9635 Tell it to the people who made the video bro
@samedwards66835 ай бұрын
Thanks so much for creating and sharing this informative video. Great job. Keep it up.
@carolann8115 ай бұрын
I transcribe body-worn camera audio. In one traffic stop for DUI the driver was asked to recite the alphabet. He rattled off a phonetic version.
@pretzelhunt5 ай бұрын
failed anyway tho
@carolann8115 ай бұрын
@@pretzelhunt Well, yeah, he was arrested. He said it correctly though. I was both impressed and annoyed b/c it took far longer to type Alpha, Bravo, Charlie than it did A, B, C.
@josekentucky865 ай бұрын
I've done that myself @@carolann811
@cycoholic5 ай бұрын
That sounds like an interesting job.
@agentwashingtub91675 ай бұрын
How many videos have you deleted for your friends?
@Leviathan565 ай бұрын
Who decided to put "joemama" in the thumbnail?
@freedomforever67185 ай бұрын
Joemamma did.
@weaselcon5 ай бұрын
Dadum dum dum tshhh!
@musicalaviator5 ай бұрын
Your Mother did.
@TodayIFoundOut5 ай бұрын
Producer extraordinaire and longtime basement dweller Sam. :-) -Daven
@FavioredValkyrie5 ай бұрын
Joemomma did.
@CujoHyer5 ай бұрын
I had a guy get nervous reading off a license plate to me once, and he hit X, and said 'Xylophone'. that got quite a few laughs later.
@Lightning6135 ай бұрын
Personally, had a difficult time translating the real (NATO) alphabet to the local police alphabet.
@peterbennett85675 ай бұрын
I asked someone who was using random words what she'd use for Z - she immediately said "Xylophone"! (well, it does sound llike it should start with a Z)
@CujoHyer5 ай бұрын
@@peterbennett8567 Cracks me up that word would ever pop in somene's head for that purpose.
@nlwilson48925 ай бұрын
That isn't as funny as my staff sergeant spelling out the registration of the van we were using and when he said "uniform" me thinking "I'm sure there wasn't a u", I checked, he was trying to indicate "y". I didn't correct, not my place :)
@raindancer61115 ай бұрын
As an old biddy I would say that xylophone does spring to mind for X. When I was very young I had an alphabet puzzle with A for apple and a picture and so on. X was illustrated with a xylophone. It did give my nursery teacher a bit of a surprise when I came out with that one in class.
@THE-X-Force5 ай бұрын
lol .. (6:04) "Monkey Nuts" .. (yes, I have a 8yr old's sense of humor!)
@Svensk71195 ай бұрын
The singular purpose of the phonetic alphabet is clarity. With more than half the consonants in the English-version alphabet sounding just like the Vowel "E", a shakey, staticky radio connection across a very loud situation where men are screaming, shouting, cursing, and crying, pronouncing each letter as a name or word guarantees more than one shot to determine the word. If I gear "--ee," it could be anything. If I hear, "--ko", or, "---elta," or, "--ango," I know exactly what was said: echo, delta, tango, "E", "D", "T", respectively. That's it. No need to watch now..... Except for the joy of watching Simon work. And it was a joy. I have finished it now, and I had not considered the international aspect. Well done, Simon! Thank you for a well-presented video.
@floridaboz15 ай бұрын
Joemomma nice little Easter egg
@James_Wotring5 ай бұрын
I was looking for someone else who noticed!
@ginbei7115 ай бұрын
@@James_Wotring me too 😂
@oalfodr5 ай бұрын
It was Easter in my part of the world around the time you wrote your comment
@nunyabidness6745 ай бұрын
@@oalfodr Your part of the world is 3 weeks behind everyone else?
@oalfodr5 ай бұрын
@@nunyabidness674 Yup. Church here follows Julian calendar
@PetesGuide5 ай бұрын
I made extensive revisions to the Wikipedia articles on this topic years ago, so you’re probably using a bunch of my work and research. But I learned a few new things that even I didn’t know, so color me extremely impressed!
@IMeanMachine1015 ай бұрын
ok the person who did that title needs a raise
@teds87475 ай бұрын
I have watched many of your shows, but this one really stood out for me... I recently started learning the phonetic alphabet, as many of my friends are military and use it a lot... It is not so easy to pick up, but your explanation of its history and how it came to be the way it is now makes a lot more sense!
@zeppelinmage5 ай бұрын
I learned the NATO alphabet as a teenager when I got my ham radio license. Still use it today working in the airline industry, and anytime I need to spell something over the phone.
@geoffpriestley73105 ай бұрын
I Wonder if he'll do the q codes next
@bite-sizedshorts96355 ай бұрын
Not NATO. It's military and invented way before NATO.
@risenempire2 ай бұрын
I worked with an organization called the Civil Air Patrol for about ten years. They perform critical search and rescue and disaster relief functions here in the US (and would ABSOLUTELY make a great video, that were responsible for the WWII shoreline protection of the US, bombed U-boats, and recovered one of the first enigma machines!) We used NATO for all radio communication and I still use it to this day and I've taught it to my kids!
@samhavoc10665 ай бұрын
Still use it all the time when I interact with people on the phone and they or I need to communicate spelling of a word or letters in a serial number.
@dinsdalemontypiranha43495 ай бұрын
This was awesome Simon! I'm interested in languages so that made this video of particular interest to me.
@wendybrenner26145 ай бұрын
thank you Simon I was in the United States Navy and always wondered how they got these letters and used the specific terms for a different things 1:07 so today I learned what I should have known 20 years ago lol😊🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💯ogbb
@wendybrenner26145 ай бұрын
1st
@TheScandoman5 ай бұрын
YES! You totally SHOULD have learned it 20 years ago! ...even if it wasn't a requirement of your rating.
@bite-sizedshorts96355 ай бұрын
NATO had nothing to do with it.
@TheScandoman5 ай бұрын
@@bite-sizedshorts9635 Yes, it was in use before NATO.
@mycroft_moriarty5 ай бұрын
I haven't needed to transmit vital info that way in decades, and it's still etched into my brain...or my Bravo-Romeo-Alpha-India-November...
@Elongated_Muskrat5 ай бұрын
Oscar Mike Golf! What an odd topic.
@LewisLittle665 ай бұрын
I used to work for a motor breakdown company and we were taught this in training. It was such a blessed relief when a customer knew it too.
@GIBBO41825 ай бұрын
Genius title! 😂
@mcswordfish5 ай бұрын
I was inspired to learn it as a child because of watching The Bill (a police soap in the UK in the 90's) - all the radios used a two-letter call-sign and I was intrigued as to who "Sierra Oscar" was, so my Dad explained it to me. It's been absolutely invaluable to me in my professional life, working in IT - reading out alphanumeric passwords, or ever spelling someone's name on the phone is made much easier. I've done it for so long I can spell words just as quickly in NATO as I can with saying the "normal" letter names, much to the chagrin of my wife who can't use it at the same speed
@lorensims48465 ай бұрын
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a delightful comedy movie memoir of the life of imbedded reporters in Afghanistan.
@randomobserver81685 ай бұрын
One of the elements of the NATO alphabet that did make it out into gen pop for a while there. The filmmakers obviously assumed by then it was understood to mean WTF by enough people to buy tickets. Also, fun movie. People I knew thought it captured the civilian expat life in Kabul in those days reasonably well. At least for the media and a few other groups.
@jliller5 ай бұрын
Thank you. I was familiar with the old military phonetic alphabet and the NATO phonetic alphabet, but had no idea why the specific words used were chosen.
@ArizonaJoeHines5 ай бұрын
I was a casualty clerk for the 19th Combat Engineer Battalion (1970). Took many casualty reports over the radio. Like much Army training, the phonetic alphabet sticks with you. It's interesting that the Los Angeles Police Department apparently uses another phonetic alphabet, based on what you see on TV.
@bhgtree5 ай бұрын
I've been staring at the can of Coke Zero all the time as I listened to Simon.
@johnguill61295 ай бұрын
In a telephone conversation in a previous employment, I once inquired of the person on the other end of the line by asking, "D as in Delta?" She replied, "No, D as in Dog." 🤨
@timmystwin5 ай бұрын
I know the phonetic one better than the normal one. I get to like G then forget which letter's next, but know the phonetic ones instantly.
@Watty78785 ай бұрын
Gerp
@pieterboelen28625 ай бұрын
"Normal one"? What's the normal one?
@chitlitlah5 ай бұрын
@@pieterboelen2862 I think he means the normal alphabet. Somehow he didn't learn his ABCs when he was a kid.
@christopherdean13265 ай бұрын
I always assumed it was "alpha" not "alfa". Learnt it in basic training back in 1984, and thought I would never use it again, but it comes in handy when giving information over the phone. One time it was really useful was when I was installing computer based ticket machines. One of us had to read off this long code while another person entered it into the computer. One day, it just so happened that the person on the keyboard was an ex-RAF radio operator, so I was pretty confident she knew it. Our supervisor, who was not ex-military was quite...disgruntled at our workaround...
@Pugjamin5 ай бұрын
When I worked in a call center, my all time favourite was a customer who said “Q for cucumber” 😂🙈 My response “I can see where you’re going with that, but, no.”
@TakaAmun5 ай бұрын
As a 911 Operator, my similar but troublesome experience with a caller that I couldn't understand if he was saying S or F, so I asked several times 'F like Foxtrot, or S like Sierra?" He'd say something I didn't understand, so I tried again 'F like Frank, or S like Sam?', again some strange word that just wasn't registering with me with me. Finally I tell him that I am not understanding at all, is it 'F like Fast or S like Slow' (I may have added a touch of sarcasm on the Slow) - and he starts yelling and repeating, over and over until it finally clicks: 'F like coFFee'... 😳
@sdoddsma5 ай бұрын
As am amateur radio traffic handler, I've always used the current NATO phonetics, although some in the late 60s used the Able Baker version. It's so engrained in me that when somebody says 'Nancy' for 'N' instead of November, or 'Ida' for 'I' instead of India, I have a slight brain glitch; kinda like when somebody tells you their phone number and instead of the 3-digit, 3-digit, 4-digit cadence, they do something else. Great video on the history of phonetics, although I had to pause mid-way so as not to 'plant a seed' in my mind to use other words.
@DanielHallmark5 ай бұрын
Thr one that kills me is when operators use "kilowatt" to convey the letter 'k' instead of the prescribed "kilo." My mind immediately wants to transcribe KW instead of K.
@joshanderson89385 ай бұрын
I've warned you once TIFO.... Don't be talkin bout my momma!!
@zippanova5 ай бұрын
Thanks to Gilles Messier for his usual excellent writing! And cheers for the injection of Canadian history. Watching here from Calgary!
@likebot.5 ай бұрын
Yeah, I kinda drooled at 10:24 when you showed a graphic of an IBM-122 key keyboard. Ohhh, clicky clicky click click.
@bite-sizedshorts96355 ай бұрын
Lenovo makes one that has full travel keys that can be a good stand-in for you. And it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. That's what I'm using right now. I've worn the spacebar shiny smooth.
@frakturfreak5 ай бұрын
There is a company called Unicomp that bought the machinery and technology off of IBM and produces new buckling spring keyboards to this day.
@likebot.5 ай бұрын
@@frakturfreak Oh good. I have 2 of them and could use a few spare parts. And I'd like to convert one of them to USB. I jockeyed an AS/400 and their sequels for 30 years and these keyboards are more comfy than my favorite equally vintage jeans.
@itsmarmalade5 ай бұрын
Had to learn this really quickly after the Quick Assist update last year.
@floridaboz15 ай бұрын
Still to this day i use the Phonetic Alphabet if i want to make clear what i am saying over the phone. One of the great things i learned from my time in the military
@jeffdroog5 ай бұрын
I learned this alphabet in kindergarten lol You went way above the call of the duty to learn this lol Fail.
@SgtSupaman5 ай бұрын
@@jeffdroog , don't worry, we can tell from your replies that you've never done anything significant with your life. You don't have to keep repeating it.
@kacheek91015 ай бұрын
It's so ridiculously useful for phone conversations. I'm in the medical field and use it all the time. I wish more of my colleagues did... it's painful and time consuming when they struggle to come up with words for letters
@juliav.mcclelland24155 ай бұрын
LOL I knew R was Romeo, but I didn't know J was Juliet. Cute.
@peterbennett85675 ай бұрын
I test people's knowledge of the phonetic alphabet (for a Canadian Radio Operator certificate) and sometimes give Romeo as a clue for Juliett (or vice versa) when the student gets stuck - but that only works with people of the right culture (or age?)
@epowell42115 ай бұрын
So cool. I remember years ago trying to learn this alphabet because I was having to deal with telephone business a lot. I brought it up at a class, and this older lady said she had it memorized because of her years as a telephone operator. Really interesting to learn of the different word-alphabets.
@nicls28825 ай бұрын
I once told a French person over the phone "J" like Jalapeno... 🤦♀️ We've had a lot of good laughs over that one 😂
@julioguardado5 ай бұрын
I used to work for a French guy. He seemed to think the J in Julio was silent. 😁
@cycoholic5 ай бұрын
When I was in the NSW Ambulance, it was occasionally used, but they weren't strict on it. But being a gamer and into military movies and computer game, I was already fairky familiar with it. I still remember one time I needed more info on the patient we were picking up, and there was no way I could pronounce the foriegn (to me) name of the individual. Fortunately it was fairly short and used one letter twice. I remembered most of the letters, but I did have to double check myself so checked quickly online. I rehearsed it in my head a few times, picked up the handset and when it was appropriate, I spelled out the last name in the standard Nato phonetic alphabet. Fairly smoothly too. My mate who was driving, snapped his head in my direction and said something along the lines of "look at Mr Fancy Pants. 😂
@jasotech14265 ай бұрын
Knight for K is just mad 😆😆
@OtawoOnlineGaming5 ай бұрын
I spent 10 years in the US Army, so when a customer I was delivering to gave me a dock W# I would inevitably refer to it as Whiskey #. The lady insisted that I must be an alcoholic because no other reason made sense to her.
@Elon_Marz5 ай бұрын
Charlie Oscar Oscar Lima!
@tgbluewolf5 ай бұрын
6:04 "London monkey nuts" sounds like a great alternative for an expletive when there are sensitive ears around. 🤣
@tarmagain27715 ай бұрын
i see what you did there with the thumbnail
@PeteJacksonPapasVlogs5 ай бұрын
Interesting deep dive. I’m an amateur radio operator and the NATO standard alphabet is what we use. 73, Kilo Kilo 7 November Whiskey Uniform.
@carlmenger91455 ай бұрын
based on the ITU alphabet, 7 should be setteseven.
@edbangor91635 ай бұрын
Did he say "llama" instead of "Lima"?
@01SaltyWitch5 ай бұрын
How did you catch that?
@edbangor91635 ай бұрын
USN 2013-17. I spent 12 weeks at OCS, where reciting the phonetic alphabet perfectly while doing burpees for an hour straight was a typical morning.
@Annoyachu5 ай бұрын
Glad I wasn't the only squid to hear it!
@edbangor91635 ай бұрын
@@Annoyachu hooyah, brother
@bufftigerx5 ай бұрын
Incredible miss right in the intro
@J.A.Smith23975 ай бұрын
Good one
@maliusmaximus14285 ай бұрын
Used this Working for a bus company in Australia 20 years ago Absolutely hotel alpha romeo delta listening to this
@skyhawk_45265 ай бұрын
Tango Mike India. 😆
@gaius_enceladus5 ай бұрын
I *love* the phonetic alphabet! It's so hugely useful! On a similar theme, Simon, maybe you can do a video on *police codes* - the codes that police use to indicate a particular crime or incident. The origin of those would be interesting!
@skyhawk_45265 ай бұрын
Police codes vary tremendously depending on the agency using them. So does the phonetic alphabet they use. For example, in California, the phonetic alphabet used by CHP and local police is: "Adam, Boy, Charles, David, Edward, Frank, George, Henry, Ida, John, King, Lincoln, Mary, Nora, Ocean, Paul, Queen, Robert, Sam, Tom, Union, Victor, William, X-ray, Yellow, Zebra." On the other hand, the FBI, military and all federal law enforcement agencies use the NATO/ICAO phonetic alphabet of: "Alpha, Bravo, Carlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu." Prior to civilian law enforcement, I was in law enforcement in the US Air Force. We used completely different codes in the Air Force than I currently use in civilian law enforcement. A humorous example of this difference is that "Code 6" in the Air Force meant "I need a bathroom break." On the other hand, "Code 6" in civilian law enforcement (in California, at least) means "I need backup." This caused quite some confusion and frustration among the local sheriff's deputies that used to scan our base's radio frequency. They'd hear one of the Air Force gate guards ask for a "Code 6" (actually meaning the guard needed to use the restroom) and think the guard was asking for backup because that's what a "Code 6" meant at their agency. As far as police codes used to describe crimes, these are usually taken from the state Penal Code or Vehicle Code. They again vary by state. In California, a robbery might be dispatched as a "two-eleven in progress." This is because in California, robbery is defined in section 211 of the Penal Code. The same would be true of getting dispatched to a "possible twenty-three-one-fifty-two driver." This means a possible drunk driver because the crime of driving under the influence in California is section 23152 of the Vehicle Code. I hope that explains some things and also kind of shows how it would basically be impossible for Simon to cover all of this in a video, since every single state and country has its own unique codes.
@juliav.mcclelland24155 ай бұрын
My last name includes an S. Every time I'm asked to spell it on the phone, I add "S as in Sam" by default.
@4TheRecord5 ай бұрын
If you want to upset a police officer, tell them to Foxtrot Oscar.
@smithandshortdogs5 ай бұрын
Llama?
@kevtheis5 ай бұрын
No.
@smithandshortdogs5 ай бұрын
@@kevtheis listen carefully 0:03...
@MrMojo231005 ай бұрын
In Army cadets as a teen, I was automatically made the radio operator because I was the only one who knew the phonetic alphabet.
@OhioCruffler5 ай бұрын
"Ack ack" is not an example of phonetic alphabet; it is a corrupted version of the German 88, as in the 88mm anti aircraft gun. Acht acht.
@tobi...3985 ай бұрын
And "ack ack ack" is a quote from Mars attack
@JamesDavy20095 ай бұрын
@@tobi...398 Martians predicted the opening date of the Beijing Olympic Games?
@stevechopping30215 ай бұрын
That's Flak as in Fliegerabwehrkanone Ack Ack is differently British
@inisipisTV5 ай бұрын
@@stevechopping3021 "Acht" German for 8. As in the popular 88 mm Flack gun.
@michaelsommers23565 ай бұрын
Except the Germans measured the bores of their guns in centimeters, not millimeters, so it would be 8.8, not 88, to them.
@dacelikethefish5875 ай бұрын
Very Product Placement!
@coolbrotherf1275 ай бұрын
Did I just get joe mamma'd?
@valerianleforge5 ай бұрын
Had to learn this in the early 90s when I worked as a BT 100 and 999 operator. Came in super useful when I transitioned into Road Haulage. Now I work in an industry that is related to both Aviation and Road Transport so use it probably 10 times an hour. We have also spent a lot of time during slow periods trying to make our own - a profane one, one where the words either make no sense or are ridiculously long (g for gnome, A for antidisestablishmentariansim etc), currently working on a Tudor Courtiers version.
@JohnHoggard_aka_DaddyHoggy5 ай бұрын
I always find it ironic that I end up spelling out my email address using the NATO phonetic alphabet over the phone.
@BerndFelsche5 ай бұрын
What's @ ?? 😊
@JohnHoggard_aka_DaddyHoggy5 ай бұрын
@@BerndFelsche well, as NATO a dual language system, the other language being French, we could use 'escargot' as the French alt word for the @ symbol in email addresses...
@chrisfitzchrisfitz51825 ай бұрын
Whiskey Oscar whiskey! Holy phonetic alphabet Batman, very informative and very in-depth view of the evolution of phonetic alphabets!
@phillwainewright42215 ай бұрын
Alpha said “Bravo, Charlie” and Delta Echoed the sentiment. We danced the Foxtrot at one of those Golf Hotels (it was in India) when Juliet (who had put on a few Kilos) gave a Lima bean to Mike. Last November, Oscar’s Papa went to Quebec to meet Romeo. He wore a Sierra and Tango coloured Uniform. Meanwhile Victor drank Whiskey as he looked at the X-ray of the Yankee, whose arm was broken by a Zulu.
@kendotek94145 ай бұрын
I wish I knew this when I was in the Army🤣🤣🤣
@KismetBP5 ай бұрын
Really enjoyed this video! Thanks for all the excellent work on it! ❤🤘
@timothygreer1885 ай бұрын
Anyone else giggle every time he said, "London, Monkey, Nuts"?
@Hogscraper5 ай бұрын
It's pretty handy when dealing with people from other countries over the phone. I'm glad it exists every time I take a call from someone from Quebec.
@BXBZ885 ай бұрын
Saw Charlie wear a new Uniform last November for Tango dancing.......... Later he did the Foxtrot in same Uniform but it looked like Charlie lost some Kilos from all that dancing. Later he told the story of being at the Sierra Hotel in India and Tango danced there.
@wendybrenner26145 ай бұрын
Dave.. he's one cool cat man! I'm addicted to his scripts, sorry Danny and kevin and the rest of the team🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💯😎
@THE-X-Force5 ай бұрын
Sir .. step away from the emojis
@jasonkay425 ай бұрын
I learned the NATO/ITU alphabet when I became an amateur radio operator in 1999. It was seared into my brain during Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day events, when I would handle upwards of 80 contacts each hour while working our club radio setup in a literal field each year. We always had a very popular station during the event, as our call is W4CQ (W4 is a regional identifier, while CQ is common radio slang for "station calling").
@AnOldGeezer4205 ай бұрын
I just like hearing Simon say, "Monkey Nuts." 😂😂
@docsavage86404 ай бұрын
I use the NATO phonetic alphabet every day because I do a lot of phone calls. Saves a lot of mistakes and prevents a lot of problems when you know it's Bravo not Victor.
@dominiquejeangille92545 ай бұрын
When I was a boy scout we studied for Morse code a list of 26 (French) words where O would be - and any other vowel would be a • A was Allô •- B was Bonaparte -••• C was Coca-Cola -•-• N was Noël -• ... It was quite easy to remember. Less confusing than long and short syllables.
@Jakey40005 ай бұрын
Phonetic alphabet should just be normal in day to day life, it makes a world of difference in pharmacy
@wbrennan22535 ай бұрын
Yes. Insurance help desk operators sometimes work from home. Or are not native English speakers. Or bad phone connections.
@TheCaptainConway5 ай бұрын
Every call centre I've worked for also uses the NATO standard to clarify information as well, although they don't use the numbers.
@jamesricker39975 ай бұрын
It makes the letters easier to understand over the radio when a bad connection can make understanding difficult and have serious consequences