I'm not a native English speaker and currently have a task on my desk to translate some texts for an automatic telephone calling system. You know the stuff: to confirm your request, press one, to cancel, press pound.
And the question is: Should I use "star" or "asterisk", down left on the keypad, when your computer program talks to someone over phone?
Edit:
The calling system will be addressing both native English speakers and people who have English as their second or third language.
Asterisk is easier to understand in over low-quality telephone connection, but may confuse non-native English speakers.
Star is more or less clear to everyone, but may get misheard as it is only one syllable (especially when the phone connection is suboptimal).
Edit 2:
The system is supposed to give calls to people around the world in case of emergency with system they are responsible for. It allows for translation to any language, but the company running the system will not pay translation for one or two people, so everyone for whom there is no translation will get the call in English.
We use software synthesized voice messages (and not recorded human voice) and so the messages need to be as clear and concise as possible.
Answer
Press star.
Asterisk is the correct term, however some people will not know if * or # is an asterisk.
In fact, if they have heard * referred to as 'star' then they might assume that # must be 'asterisk'.
The word 'star' however will allow people to know what button to press, even if they have never heard of the correct terms, as it is a word with much more common usage and understanding.
This is not an English language question, as suggested, as the correct English word would be 'asterisk'.
If you have control over the software behind this, then it would be a good idea to make the system recognise presses of either * or #, in case people press the wrong one (assuming that # does not already have a different purpose).
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