hi there my name is Emma and in today's
video I am going to teach you about the
telephone and cell phones telephone
English I'm going to teach you some of
my talk tips on how to speak well when
you're on the telephone a lot of
students get very very scared when they
talk on the telephone why is this well
you can't see the person's lips moving
when you're on the telephone and the
English it's sometimes difficult to
understand what someone is saying so
it's okay you can get better at talking
on the telephone and I'm going to tell
you how so let's get started I have 8
tips for you number one one of the main
problems students make when they're on
the telephone is they're very direct
what does direct mean maybe they'll say
something like I want to talk to mr. mr.
Bob okay I want to talk to mr. Smith
this is very direct English why is it
direct what it's not the most polite way
to speak when you say I want I want it's
better when you're on the phone
especially to someone you don't know
that well to use polite English such as
could would may may I speak to mr. Bob
may I speak to mr. Smith could you hold
on a moment please okay it sounds a lot
nicer so remember your could would may
try not to use want tip number two
practice practice practice practice
practice makes perfect but how do you
practice who will you practice with well
one idea is if you know that there's a
business and
the business is closed for the day you
can call their their telephone number
maybe they have an answering machine you
can listen to what I would recommend is
call a business you know will be closed
listen to their answering machine
message and try to take notes on what
they say and then call back and see did
what you hear it wait is it the same is
it the same from the first time you call
- the second time are your notes correct
so very key is practice you can also
practice with a friend you can practice
in front of the mirror hello
okay so practice practice practice
number three spelling a lot of the times
we have to spell on the phone sometimes
you have to spell your name your last
name your address so it's very important
to be able to pronounce alphabet letters
ABCDE so it's very important that you
can say these letters correctly and also
that you you know how to spell things
out on the phone so what do I mean by
this well for example if you have to
call someone and they need to write down
your last name and your last name is
will say your last name is white so
white so you're on the phone and they
say what's your last name my last name
is white and then you start spelling it
W as in Wilson H as in he'll gar it's a
weird name but I as in Iceland so what
you do is you spell out your name using
examples so for example if I'm spelling
Emma I'd say my name is Emma that's e as
in Aaron M as in Mary M as in Mary a as
in n why do we do this
it's because
English letters sound the same if you're
on the phone and you say P D T V they
all sound so similar by spelling out in
this way the person will know which
letter you're talking about tip number
four numbers a lot of the time when you
talk on the phone you have to use
numbers or someone will it will tell you
a number and you may have to write it
down it's very important to practice
your numbers practice listening for
numbers so for example a lot of students
have trouble with 30 versus 13 okay
what's the difference
30 the first part is is long sir the
second part is short T 30 versus 13
where the first part of the number is
short and the second part is long so
it's very important to get used to
numbers like 14 verses 40 15 versus 50
and you should also practice listening
to long numbers okay maybe if I say the
number one you understand that it's easy
but try to listen to this number if I
say four forty five one seven eight ten
100 maybe it would be more challenging
so practice your numbers number five
very important tip ask if you don't
understand a lot of students get nervous
on the phone and they're too embarrassed
to tell the person they're talking to I
don't understand it's very important you
tell the person that okay so when you're
on the phone you can say I'm sorry can
you repeat that please or I'm sorry
could you repeat that or I'm sorry can
you please slow down
I'm my English is not strong this will
help for the other person on the line to
slow down their English and then
hopefully you can hear what they're
saying
it's always asked for them to slow down
if you don't understand and you can ask
them to repeat number six it's very good
to memorize so remember
key phone expressions okay what are some
examples of these ring-ring imagine
someone's calling me hello okay they say
is is Josh there I say oh I'm sorry he's
not in may I ask who's calling please
a lot of the phone English it's the same
you hear the same expressions again and
again and again just remember these
expressions may I ask who's calling
please
okay is so-and-so there if you remember
these expressions it will make talking
on the phone a lot easier for you number
seven when you're on the phone it's
important to know if you should use
formal or informal English what's the
difference formal English you would use
maybe if you're talking to someone you
don't know maybe if you work at a
business you might use this with a
customer so it's it's very polite
English informal English is the English
you would use with your friends so it's
important to know which phone
expressions are formal and which ones
are informal an example of this what I
made a mistake was one time in a job
interview somebody called me and they
asked to speak to me and I said oh hey
how's it going this is very informal
English what I should have said is how
are you okay so it's important to know
the difference
finally the last tip and a very
important one
smile when you smile when you're on the
phone it makes your brain think you're
very happy and it will calm you down
okay so you'll feel less nervous if you
smile and also people can usually hear
if someone is smiling it sounds weird
but it's true when you're smiling people
can usually tell that you sound happier
so it's very good to smile when you
answer the phone when you call someone
have a smile on and you'll feel calmer
so I hope you've enjoyed this video I
invite you to come to our website
wwlp.com
there we have some quizzes where you can
practice my phone tips so until next
time take care
[Laughter]