Fluentzy.com > English > Book S3: Fluency in Telephone English and Sectoral English
  
 
Book S3: Fluency in Telephone English
and Sectoral English

Fluency in Telephone English

Fluency in Telephone English
and Sectoral English

By Prof. Kev Nair

"Fluency in Telephone English and Sectoral English teaches you how to be fluent over the phone."
The New Indian Express.

Please note: This book is not sold separately. It is available for sale only as part of Fluentzy: The English Fluency Encyclopedia.


Sample pages from this book


Fluency in Telephone English

There’s an important point you must remember when you have a telephone conversation. When you have a conversation with someone on the telephone, you’re not face-to-face with them. You and the person you’re having the conversation with are not within each other’s presence or sight. On the other hand, when you have a face-to-face conversation with someone, you’re near them, and you can see them. And you can listen to them and speak to them ?by actually looking at them (and their facial expressions and gestures) and at the surroundings.

You see, when you have a face-to-face conversation with someone, you communicate not only through the actual words you use, but also through a number of extra-linguistic factors ?such as facial expressions, gestures, etc. But when you have a telephone conversation, many of the extra-linguistic factors are absent ?and you’ve got to rely mainly on the actual words you use in order to convey your meaning. The person at the other end can’t watch your facial expressions or gestures. And you can’t watch his. And so, neither of you can take advantage of extra-linguistic factors like facial expressions or gestures to add meaning to the actual words used.

In the same way, when you have a face-to-face conversation with somebody, you don’t need to spell out everything in words. Many of the things you want to communicate to them would be clear to them from the situational context. But when you have a telephone conversation, a number of aspects of the situational context are absent. So when you have a telephone conversation, you’ll have to spell out all these things clearly in words. Or the person at the other end of the line won’t be able to understand what you mean. For example, when you have a telephone conversation, you won’t be able to speak about something or someone by pointing them out to your addressee ?because the addressee is not near you, and the addressee can’t see them. So on the phone, you’ll have to speak about them by mentioning their actual names (if your addressee knows them by those names) ?or by actually describing them in such a way that the addressee understands what you’re referring to or who you’re referring to. Similarly, the addressee (the person at the other end of the line) won’t be able to see the surroundings at your end or what is going on around you at your end at the time you’re speaking. And so the addressee’s eyes give him no help in understanding what you’re saying, and he’ll have to depend solely on his ears.

Murakami`s Cherry Blossom arrangement of animated animation faces and blush and replica watches replica louis vuittn chicken flowers aswell succeeded in replica watches bringing boyhood to the table and bringing rolex replica added action to Louis Vuitton handbags. LV food in Moscow, Russia and in New replica watches Delhi, India opened, while the Utah and Suhali collections were aswell released. The 20th ceremony of the LV Cup was aswell commemorated.The accurate gucci replica added adequate ambiance forth with for a best replica louis vuitton replica louis replica time times during the summer months advice omega replica accomplish abundant women of all ages ambition to acclimatize its louis vuitton replica poor leather- based purses and handbags to advice summer-friendly breitling replica tones and abounding added replica louis replica recreational kinds.

All this means that when you speak to somebody on the phone, you’ll have to assume less and spell out more. Yes. When you have a phone conversation, you’ll have to explain almost everything in the clearest or the most detailed way. What I’m trying to tell you is this: When you speak to somebody face to face, you can take a number of things for granted. That is, you can assume one thing: Even if you don’t spell out many of the things clearly in words, your addressee would be able to understand them from your facial expressions, gestures and the situational context. And so, when you speak to somebody face to face, you needn’t spell out these things clearly. In other words, when you speak to somebody face to face, you can assume a lot, and you need only spell out the important things. But when you speak to somebody on the telephone, you’ll have to do the opposite: You’ll have to assume less and spell out more. And that’s not all. When you have a telephone conversation, you must be careful to do one other thing: You’ll have to spell out what you want your addressee to understand in a way that’s clearer than you would’ve done if you had been speaking to him face to face. That is, when you have a telephone conversation, it’s not enough that you spell out a lot. You must also spell them out far more clearly and in a far more detailed way.

In short, when you have a telephone conversation, you’re handicapped in several ways. And it’s not always as easy to get your meaning across over the telephone as it is when you have a face-to-face conversation. But all this does not mean that when you speak on the telephone, you’ll have to be as explicit as you are when you communicate the same thing in writing. No. That’s not so. First of all, you can never be as explicit during a telephone conversation as when you write something ?because even during a telephone conversation, you communicate through the spoken medium (and not through the medium of writing). So, even during a telephone conversation, you speak under pressure of time, and you can only express yourself by composing and speaking at the same time, just as you do when you have a face-to-face conversation. Secondly, when you have a telephone conversation, you keep getting feedback and reactions to what you say from your addressee ?in words, exclamations and other sounds that he produces over the phone as he listens to what you say. And so, depending on the addressee’s reaction, you can keep modifying, improving and adding to what you say from moment-to-moment, and thus make your meaning clear to him. And his moment-to-moment reactions would let you know the points on which he shares knowledge with you and the points that he has understood without your having specifically mentioned them. This saves you from having to spell out those points in words, and you can safely speak on by taking those points for granted.

Because of all these reasons, if you want your telephone conversation to be effective, you must never forget to do the following things:

Guidelines for making a call
1). Whenever you dial a number and someone picks up the phone at the other end, you should do these things:

i) Ask the person who picks up the phone at the other end if the number of the phone he has picked up is really the number you dialled.

Eg: ?Are you 3467983? ?Is that 3467983?

ii) If he says it is the right number, it’d be a good idea to go ahead and ask him if it’s really the place (office, house, etc.) that you want.

Eg: ?Is that the XYZ Co.? ?Is that the Fire Station?

iii) Then you should announce your identity. (You should do this ?if the person who picked up the phone at the other end has not already recognized your voice). Tell him who you are and where you’re calling from ?that is, the place, office etc. you’re calling from.

iv) After announcing your identity, you can straightaway ask him if you could speak to such and such a person ?without asking him who he is. Of course, if you recognize his voice, and if he’s the person you want to speak to, you can straight away launch into a conversation.

v) If the person who picks up the phone at the other end voluntarily announces his identity, and if he’s not the person you want to speak to, tell him you’d like to speak to such and such a person ?or ask him if you could speak to that person.

vi) Suppose that the person who picks up the telephone at the other end tells you that the person you want is not available or that, for some reason, you can’t speak to him at that point of time. Then if you want, you can ask the person who has picked up the phone who he is ?before you start telling him anything else.

Eg: ?Who’s this speaking? ?May I know who this is speaking, please?

But remember one thing: In general, nobody likes to tell you who they are if you don’t tell them who you are first. So the best policy is to announce your identity first, before asking for the identity of the person at the other end.

vii) Suppose that the person who picks up the phone at the other end is not the person you want, and suppose that he puts you through to the right person. Then, announce your identity once again, and ask this second person if he is really the person you want to talk to.

Eg: Is that Mr. Sridhar?

2). Once you get the person you want on the phone, and once you’re sure that he’s the person you want, you can state the purpose of your call. But don’t just rush into explaining the purpose all of a sudden. Instead, start by preparing the ground ?by telling him that you’re now going to state the purpose. For example, if you’re calling him to tell him something about a meeting, you can begin by saying something like this:

?I’m calling you about tomorrow’s meeting. Or,
?It’s about tomorrow’s meeting.

Tell him what you want to tell him about the meeting only after you get him ready to listen to it by preparing the ground in this way. On the one hand, this step gives a sense of direction to what you want to say. And on the other hand, it directs your addressee’s attention to what you’re going to say.

3). In the same way, before you speak to him about anything important, start by telling him that you’re going to speak to him about such and such a thing or such and such a person or such and such a topic. In this way, you must always build an expectation in him about what you’re going to say ?before you actually say it. This step is very important if your telephone communication is to be really effective.

4). Before you actually ring off, say something appropriate that’d indicate to the person at the other end that you’re going to ring off. Depending on the context, word groups like the following would help you do this:

?Bye, then. ?I’ll get back to you soon. ?Well, that’s settled, then. ?Thanks a lot. Goodbye. ? Until tomorrow, then. Goodbye.

Guidelines for answering a call
So far, I’ve been telling you about making a phone call. Let me now tell you a few things about answering a call.

When you answer a call, points 3 and 4 given above are as important as when you make a call. But the preliminary things that you must do (when you answer a call) are not the same.

And here are the preliminary things you must do when you answer a call:

1). As soon as you pick up the phone to answer a call, let the caller know that you’ve picked up the phone and that he has your attention. You can do this by saying “Hello?

2). If you want to be more helpful, you can voluntarily announce the number of your phone or announce your identity while saying “Hello?(or instead of saying “Hello?.

Eg: ?Hello, 3468953. ?Hello, Ashok Kumar here. ?XYZ company. Good morning.

3). If the caller starts stating the purpose of his call without announcing his identity, you can ask him who he is before telling him anything or helping him ?if you find it necessary to do so.

 

End of sample content

 

  

Top

christian louboutin women prada outlet chloe bags prada clutch bags christian louboutin Sandals outlet chloe bags hermes handbags yves saint laurent Totes bags replica celine phantom bag outlet hermes bag outlet christian louboutin pumps hermes sale replica christian louboutin men outlet christian louboutin pumps celine trapeze sale christian louboutin shoes replica