This week in our English blog: using the phone in English! We are going to have a look at something that is sometimes very daunting* to learners in any language: communicating effectively on the phone. In the 21st century world of email, text messages and other online methods of communication, it is often possible to avoid speaking on the phone in English.
However, you will still sometimes need to have an effective conversation on the phone in order to function 100% in English. Besides, we want to feel confident when we are working with a new language, so it is important to be comfortable in many different situations because you really never know when speaking on the phone might be your only choice for making plans, solving a problem or getting help.
Improving Listening Comprehension
Our first point of focus isn’t directly related to speaking on the phone, but it something that we must discuss if we truly want to conquer ‘phone English’. It’s about listening in general. Being more comfortable listening in English will give you an immediate advantage when you are on the phone, and this involves spending time listening.
You might think of it like a new pilot who is learning to fly an airplane. It is, of course, important to learn about all the parts of the airplane and how to control it, but eventually, you need to spend (or “log” as pilots say) a lot of hours actually flying in an airplane before you are going to develop the skills and confidence you need to be successful.
Listening in English, like flying in an airplane, needs to feel comfortable, not strange. In order to achieve this, we have to spend a lot of time practicing. Fortunately, the Internet has a lot of resources for practicing listening in English. You can have a look at English Portal’s resource page for some listening links.
3 of our favorite resources are:
TED talks: these are very popular. They have talks on many different topics. These are videos that usually have helpful visuals:
Oh, by the way, “TED” is an acronym** that stands for: technology, entertainment, design.
BBC Reel: these are also videos and usually have topics related to nature, science and technology:
NPR: these are not videos. This is 100% listening with no help from visuals, so they are very good practice. They also cover many different topics, including many different stories about news, culture, arts, tech and current events. This is an invaluable*** resource:
Now, to the phone!
Ok. Finally, let’s talk specifically about communicating effectively on the phone in English. Spending lots of time practicing listening is wonderful, but it is also good to have some guidelines in mind before we dive into a phone call. Let’s assume that we are not calling a friend. Our phone call might be to get information or because we need a service. In any situation on the phone, we first need to do two things:
1- Introduce ourselves:
Hi, my name is…
2- Explain why we are calling:
I’m calling to…
I’m calling because…
We may also want to confirm that we are speaking with the correct person:
Is this the ____________ department?
Are you with ____________ …?
Be Ready
Using the phone in English can be stressful, so it may help us if we are prepared with some information that the person may ask us for. This could be:
Our physical address (where we live)
Our email address
Our phone number
Our account number
(if it is company that provides a service)
Our order number
(if we have a problem with something we purchased)
This is one reason why it is so important to be comfortable with numbers!
Anticipate Questions
Another part of being on the phone in English that we should be ready for is the other person asking us questions, so remember your question words and anticipate some possibilities:
Who…?
Who am I speaking with?
Who is your insurance provider?
What…?
What can I help you with today?
What is your date of birth?
When…?
When would you like to schedule that?
When is a convenient time to…?
Also, we will probably need to use several question words:
Who should I contact for help with that?
How do you spell that?
What does that mean?
Why do I need to do this?
Can you tell me more about that?
In addition to our language, using a friendly tone of voice and using strategies for polite language can be very helpful. To explore this more, have a look at our previous blog post about making requests sound polite.
Additional Considerations
Even if we are communicating successfully, it is possible that the person to whom we are speaking may not be able to help us, so they may communicate something to us about necessity, so it’s good to be prepared to hear this type of language, such as:
You will need to…
You have to…
You must…
We also need to be prepared with certain language that will help us with communication problems on the phone. There is a question that we already use when we are speaking with anyone, anywhere and don’t understand something:
Could you please repeat that?
This is one of the most useful things you can communicate when you are learning a language, and it is especially useful here. On the phone, you can’t see the person’s mouth, facial expressions or hand gestures, so communication is often more difficult.
Other ways to say this are:
Can you say that again?
Excuse me, I didn’t catch that.
What if they repeat and you still don’t understand?
I’m sorry, one more time, please.
It is even ok to be honest and say:
Sir/ma’am, could you speak a little more slowly? I’m from France/ Japan/Brazil/etc.
Don’t be shy about telling someone that you didn’t understand. This is not your first language, and you are not a robot.
Speaking of machines, you may also have a problem with something you have no control over: technology. Maybe your phone signal or the other person’s signal is bad.
If this is the case, you can say:
I’m sorry, but I didn’t catch that, you cut out for a minute.
I’m sorry. I can’t hear you! You’re breaking up!
Or just, the very common:
Can you hear me?
Conclusion
Toward the end of the conversation, you are likely to hear something similar to:
Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Finally, it is good to know how to “wrap up” (or end) a conversation:
You have been so helpful! Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
There is, of course, another possibility. Maybe the person has not been helpful. Maybe they have been really rude. If this happens, one possible response is:
I would appreciate your not speaking to me that way.
Like anything, speaking on the phone in English will become easier as you practice it more. You will get more comfortable and confident. Be sure to check out some of the recommended listening links above. Don’t be intimidated by having to speak on the phone. Your English skills are most likely better than you realize!
As usual, here are your vocabulary links:
*https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/learner-english/daunting
**https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/learner-english/acronym
***https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/learner-english/invaluable