Good day, English Winners. Today, we're going to go over phone conversations in
the first part of a series. So, in this video we will go over a very basic phone
conversation... the things you might hear, and the things you might have to say.
This is helpful if you work in a call center or in a secretarial position
where you have to answer the phone a lot. Now personally, I've worked in telephone
sales for about two years of my life, total. And you know what? I don't like it.
I don't like talking on the phone. That phone weighs a lot. It's so heavy to pick
up and dial the numbers to call BECAUSE - in my mind - I'm a little bit nervous. So I
know how you feel about the phone, and we're going to go over a simple phone
conversation to get you started. Let's begin: This first phone conversation is
pretty simple; it's where you answer the phone, then someone asks you a question,
and you just answer it, and then you get off the phone.
This type of phone conversation works well... whether you are at home, or at work.
So, when you answer the phone, the goal is just like with any language: to find out
who is calling, and who they are trying to talk to. So, you pick up the phone and
you say 'hello'. And they might say: 'Hello. This is George speaking.' So you know the
person calling you is named George. This is a great way to introduce who you are
if you're calling someone on the phone. 'Hello.
This is Tom speaking." And, of course, if you work for a company, you could say the
name of the company afterwards. It's like: "This is - name - calling from - company name -..."
Like: "This is Peter calling from ABC corporation." If you want this
conversation to go faster, and you're calling somebody on the phone, you could
say: "Hello. This is Tom calling for James." So if
you're Tom, and the other person is James, you could say: "This is Tom calling for
James." And then the other person can say: well... "I'm James." "Speaking." or they could
say: "Oh, James isn't here right now." Ok? Let's go to the next thing you might
hear in a conversation like this. Ok, so this next one is semi-formal; it works in
most situations. You could say: "Is - name - there, please?"
The please is what makes it semi-formal, so let's try it: "Is Mark there, please?" or
- if we're tying the whole conversation together - I could say: "Hello. This is Steve.
Is Tom there, please?" That way, you're announcing yourself and who you are
calling for. So... people love to hear their name. So, if you can use their name in a
conversation, that helps. Furthermore, when you're calling somebody, and you are
pretty sure you know who is on the other end of the line talking back to you, and
you just wish to confirm, it you could say: "Hello. Is this Tom?" Like: "Hello is this...
-the name of the person you're calling -" "Hello. Is this James?" "Hello. Is this David?"
"Hello. Is this Katie?" Another way to confirm who you are speaking to
- especially if you are less sure who the other person is and you need to ask
specifically for the person on the other end, you can say: "Hello. May I speak to
Janet?" "Hello. May I speak to Alice?" "Hello. May I speak to Rhonda." So these are very
simple ways to ask for the other person. Now this is a very informal one. You will
hear this all the time with friends calling each other's houses. Maybe you
see a kid. He's calling his friend's house and their mom picks up the phone.
They might say: "Hello. Steve here. Is Tom in?" so just... "Is - named - in?" "Is Mark in?" "Is
Robert in?" It's a very easy way to ask if the other
person is available to talk. Now if somebody... if somebody calls you on the phone, and they
say: "Can I speak to... - and they say YOUR name - and you wish to confirm: Yes, this is
me... you can say: "This is he." "This is he." ...if you are a guy. And if you are a girl:
"This is she." And also, if you wish to confirm, and you are very informal, and
this isn't - like - a really important call to either side, other than just making
the call, if someone says: "Is Pradesh in?" Let's say
your name is Pradesh. "Is Pradesh in?" You could just say: "Speaking." "Is Dave in?"
"Speaking." "Is Amber in?" "Speaking." I'm not going to do that too much.
My junior classes love it when I play different voices. And so we've gone over
some of the ways people answer the phone, asking for the other person, and
confirming who is speaking. I want you to go over these a couple times and repeat
them to yourself. Get used to answering the phone. Once that part is done,
a lot of your stress with making phone conversations will go down, okay? Because
you have one part of the phone conversation mastered. So, watch it again.
Practice it. Watch it again... and then we'll move to answering the questions.
And so there are a whole lot of different types of questions you can
answer. I'm not going to go over every situation, but if it's appropriate to
answer the question when someone asks it to you, you should. If someone asks you:
"Can I send the documents by email?" You can say: "Yes you can." or: "Fax machine would
be better." You know, any type of situation - where you need to answer the questions -
answer it, and then, you go to the last section of the phone conversation, which
is: getting off the phone. Now, when people get off the phone, you're going to hear
an intonation issue. It's going to start here... and then go down a little bit... and go
down a little bit... okay... bye bye. You notice how my voice
goes up... down a little bit... down a little bit... down a little bit... down a little bit... bye?
Listen to this closely. Because, if you hear their voice going down like this,
and you're trying to keep the conversation going, you may be annoying
the other person, who is trying to get off the phone for whatever reason. Be
very careful. Now we'll talk about what to say when getting off the phone. Now, if
you're at work, you can say to the other person... let's say the other person's name
is Brian: "Thank you for calling, Brian. Let me know if you have any other questions,
okay?" And if they say, 'No, we don't have any other questions,' they you can say:
"Okay. Have a nice day. Bye." And that's it! It's simple. You thank the other person.
You say their name. You let them know that you can help them if they have any
other questions... and if they don't have any other questions, you can say: "Okay.
Thank you. Have a nice day. Bye." Or "Thank you. Bye." This next one
is if you're in a little bit more of a hurry... you need to get things done fast
and get off the phone. So, you could say: "Okay. Thank you for
calling. Okay. Bye." And in some parts of the world, you might hear: "Okay. Thank you
for calling. Bye now." Bye now. "Thank you for calling. Bye now." In some
situations, especially social situations less so with work - more with just
regular social interactions - you'll hear: "Talk to you later." Now, if someone is
trying to solve a problem and you're working in customer service, saying "Talk
to you later." is not a good sign, unless you promised to talk to them later.
Because, you're implying they're going to have a problem in the future. So, don't
use "Talk to you later." unless you promise to talk to them later. But, in a
regular social situation, you can say: "Okay. Talk to you later. Bye now." Or "Talk
to you later. Bye. Now, if you're having trouble getting to that 'thank you...
talk to you later... bye now...' If you have trouble getting to that point, you can
say something that can move the conversation
in that direction. You could say: "I have to go now, I'm sorry." Or "Right now, I have
to get off the phone." So, when you say: "I have to get off the phone now." "I have to
get off the phone now." "I have to get up the phone now." Or "I have
to go now." "I have to go now. "I have to go now..." that tells the other person that you
need to leave the conversation. So then, that will start that: "Okay. I'll talk to
you later. Have a nice day. Bye now." And then the
phone conversation will end. So you see? Congratulations. You did it!
Now, before we get off of this video, I am going to go over a example phone
conversation, okay? And that way, you can see how this might work: (Ringing)
"Hello. This is Steve. Is Tom in?" "Speaking." "Yes. Yes. I'm about to send in the
documents. Do you need the documents by fax machine or will email work better?"
"Yes, Steve. Please just send them by email... as an email attachment. That would be
easiest." "Okay. I'll go ahead and send them by email. Thanks a lot, Tom." "All right. Talk
to you later." "Yes. Talk to you later. Bye now." "Good bye."
And that's it! If you liked this video, please SUBSCRIBE, and be sure to check
out the telephone conversation videos that I'll make in the future. Keep
winning, English winners. Talk to you later.
Bye.