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  • 工作学习 / English / Make and answer phone calls -jabber(jabber); 2001-4-17 {1276} (#47690@0)
    本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Well, some friends will think I am talking nonsense. Here is my observation: Most Chinese people like to initiate a phone call by asking something like "May I speak Jabber?". Actually, there are some other ways to begin a call. I believe the most pupolar one is : "Is Jabber there?". Of course, this is informal.

    Regarding answering a call, there are also a lot of English idioms. I may very seriously respond: " This is Jabber speaking". But in most cases, people simply say "Speaking". What is worse for us, some people answer the call by saying "It's he" or "Its's she." On the one hand, a lot of Chinese people cannot hear and understand "It's he" or "It's she"; on the other hand, some Chinese people say "It's me", but this is improper on the phone.

    In addition, if we are at a working place, we had better answer the phone in the following way: "Jabber speaking." Some people like to pick up the phone and say "Hello", even "Hi", but this is not a very good practice.

    As for business calls, they are another story. Here is an example. "Nortel Networks. This is Jabber. How can I help you?" . Sounds funny?


    My observation may be completely wrong. Please correct my mistakes, if any. Thank you in advance.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
    • My anwser is: " You're looking for Jason? Yeah you got him!" -guest:; 2001-4-17 (#47693@0)
      • Is that appropriate? -guest:; 2001-4-17 (#47694@0)
      • Of course, your answer is good. But it is established on your commanding of English. -jabber(jabber); 2001-4-17 (#47696@0)
        • Is it? I don't get it. Mind to explaine more? -guest:; 2001-4-17 (#47700@0)
          • Personally I think your answering sounds cool and humorous. If your English is fluent and you are a talkative person, your answering will be a big plus. -jabber(jabber); 2001-4-17 (#47710@0)
    • All of my co-worker said just like "xxx, speaking" in office. so I follow their way to answer. By the way I want to how to answer the phone at home. Should be "hello", right? -blackswan(uglyduck); 2001-4-17 (#47701@0)
      • Yes, "John speaking" is a typical answer at working places. The problem is that we cannot control the others. -jabber(jabber); 2001-4-17 {237} (#47705@0)
        Actually, if you ask "Is Dr. Smith there?" on a campus, he/she may say

        1) Speaking
        2) It's he(she).

        Most people use the former, but some people use the latter. We cannot ask people not to say "It's he" or "it's she".
    • Usually, I just say "Good morning" at work. -bloor(bloor); 2001-4-17 (#47702@0)
      • If a Quebecquoise calls you, you will say "Bonjour" or "Ben Zhu". right? -jabber(jabber); 2001-4-17 (#47706@0)
        • In New York the blacks say :'"Yeah woot's up ? How da fuck with your bitch these days?" -guest:; 2001-4-17 (#47708@0)
    • I am sitting among 3 sales person in my company. -birdswimming(feifei); 2001-4-17 {535} (#47846@0)
      Their phone calls never stop from morning to night. Their answer for a phone call is exactly the same as your said, ****company(Yang Sheng), this is ***(Yang sheng), May I help you(Yang sheng). They speak so quickly that I only notice they always answer the customers by "yang sheng". For example, the words YES and SURE, the most populare words in their tongues, they are spoken out like using the third tone of chinese pronunciation. I appreciate your post. I will pay attention to what they say so that I can exchange ideas here.
      • Good observation. If you listen carefully, you will notice that some people say "Kay" instead of "OK". -jabber(jabber); 2001-4-18 (#48132@0)
    • good post! your post make me think of the day i started my first job here. just like you, stretching my ears, hearing what my fellows answer the call and learning from it. -lake(lake); 2001-4-17 (#47871@0)
      • You are a good learner. Every native-English speaker is our language teacher. -jabber(jabber); 2001-4-18 (#48137@0)
    • Hello ,kinkin的留言鸡坏乐，现在是她的电熨斗在说话，请听到"呲~~~~~~"的一声后留言。"呲~~~~~~~~~" -kinkin(颗粒); 2001-4-18 (#48018@0)
      • Hi, you have reached kinkin and her .... We are sorry that our answer machine is out of order. Please don't take any message. You have a great day....:-) -jabber(jabber); 2001-4-18 (#48135@0)
    • Some ppl simply answer a call like this: Jabber Li. The guy next door always speaks this way and when I hear him saying "Thanks a lot. I appreciate it", I know our building is going to be quite again. -hearts(hearts); 2001-4-18 (#48126@0)
      • Yes, speaking out oneself's name is another way to answer a call. -jabber(jabber); 2001-4-18 (#48134@0)
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