ndallen@uunet.uu.net> (08/17/90)
Henry Troup writes in <Volume 10, Issue 572, Message 5 of 10): > On another track, when I lived in the U.K. we were taught to > answer the phone with the number. .... > How does the rest of the world answer the phone? I answer my phone with my name. When I shared a house with three other people, I would answer the phone "Sixteen Major", since the house was 16 Major Street, Toronto. My housemates would just say "hello". Canadian government offices will often answer the phone bilingually: "CRTC [in English], bonjour". (Actually, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission = Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des telecommunications canadiennes has the same acronym in English and French.) I think Alexander Graham Bell once proposed "hoy-hoy" as the appropriate way to answer the phone.
hamilton@uunet.uu.net (Danial Hamilton) (08/21/90)
contact!ndallen@uunet.uu.net (Nigel Allen) writes: >I think Alexander Graham Bell once proposed "hoy-hoy" as the >appropriate way to answer the phone. I believe the Japanese have a greeting that is reserved for use on the telephone. Something like "moshi moshi".
king@uunet.uu.net (Steven King) (08/25/90)
In article <10918@accuvax.nwu.edu> Henry Troup <bnrgate!bwdlh490. bnr.ca!hwt@uunet.uu.net> writes: >On another track, when I lived in the U.K. we were taught to answer >the phone with the number. I presume this dates from a time when the >switching system was even less reliable than it is today. But in North >America one thing you never do is tell a caller what number s/he has >reached. How does the rest of the world answer the phone? I answer my home number with simply "Hello?" and my work number with "Motorola, this is Steve." My father answers his home number with "King's" and has his secretary answer his work number. (Ah, the life.) I was recently in Bangkok for a few weeks, and found the people there have the annoying habit of always answering the phone with "Hello" -- regardless of whether or not they spoke English! I don't speak a word of Thai, and I couldn't keep from expecting that if the phone was answered in English then the person on the other end should UNDERSTAND English. Linguistic prejudice, I know. Steve King, Motorola Cellular (...uunet!motcid!king)
psrc@mtunq.att.com (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (08/25/90)
At the office, I always answer with the name of the company and my name. It has just the right effect on wrong number callers; if they're expecting to reach someone at the Labs, they ask if I know how I can reach someone (and I can usually transfer them); if not, they apologize and hang up. My wife treats this as a barometer. If I answer, "Hello," I'm having a rough day. If I answer, "What???," I'm having a *really* bad day! My wife's sister and her family live with us. Her husband (my brother- in-law) runs a small steel fabrication business, and forwards calls to the house when he's out of the office. My six and seven year old nephews had been taught to answer the phone, "Hello, this is Christian [or Shane], how can I help you?" This only lasted a little while; apparently, the contractors couldn't handle calling a steel fabricator and getting an answer, no matter how professional, from a little kid! We grown ups usually answer line two, "Hello, Edison National, how can I help you?" It throws the telemarketers for a loop! It's also confused some of our friends; they *think* they recognize my wife's voice, but they thought they were calling a residence. If we get, "Sorry, I think I have the wrong (click!)," and we're called back a minute later, I answer the phone, "Hello?" My mom's answering machine starts off, "Hello, you've reached three one four one." Nice; it confirms the essential part of her number, but not enough to call it back if you reached it blindly. Paul S. R. Chisholm, att!mtunq!psrc, psrc@mtunq.att.com
wnp@relay.eu.net (wolf paul) (08/26/90)
In article <11312@accuvax.nwu.edu> motcid!king@uunet.uu.net (Steven King) writes: )I was recently in Bangkok for a few weeks, and found the people there )have the annoying habit of always answering the phone with "Hello" -- )regardless of whether or not they spoke English! I don't speak a word )of Thai, and I couldn't keep from expecting that if the phone was )answered in English then the person on the other end should UNDERSTAND )English. Linguistic prejudice, I know. That's right, since the assumption that the phrase "H[aeu]llo", pronounced only slightly differently in each case, is English, is fallacious. I know of at least three other languages which have that word, meaning essentially the same thing, and being used to anser the phone in each of these languages. Wolf N. Paul, IIASA, A - 2361 Laxenburg, Austria, Europe PHONE: +43-2236-71521-465 FAX: +43-2236-71313 UUCP: uunet!iiasa.at!wnp INTERNET: wnp%iiasa.at@uunet.uu.net BITNET: tuvie!iiasa!wnp@awiuni01.BITNET
nol2105%dsacg2.dsac.dla.mil@dsac.dla.mil (Robert E. Zabloudil) (08/27/90)
In article <11114@accuvax.nwu.edu> motcid!hamilton@uunet.uu.net (Danial Hamilton) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 584, Message 4 of 12 >contact!ndallen@uunet.uu.net (Nigel Allen) writes: >I believe the Japanese have a greeting that is reserved for use on the >telephone. Something like "moshi moshi". When I took Japanese in college (only one or two quarters, unfortunately), my instructor, who had lived there for a while, told use that the calling party would use 'moshi moshi' when they heard the called party pick up the phone. I'm sure we'll hear if this is untrue. I don't know what, if anything, the called party would say. Beware of false cognates. English hello is somewhat similar to German Hallo, but they use it only in one sense of the word, similar to the British hello, and not to answer phones --- again, second-hand information. Bob Zabloudil #include std.disclaimer
Rich Zellich <zellich@stl-07sima.army.mil> (08/28/90)
My answering machine says "Hi, this is Rich and Michelle's. Please leave your message..." (or, during immediate pre-convention season "Hi, this is the Archon hotline, also known as Rich and Michelle's. Please leave...". This immediately lets callers know they've reached the right (or wrong) place, yet gives neither a number or last name for random-dialing harassment callers to use in calling you again. I could answer the phone myself the same way, which would probably be useful to callers, but a lifetime of simply saying "hello" is hard to overcome (except when I answer with "telephone" every once in a blue moon).
ergo@ames.arc.nasa.gov> (08/29/90)
In <11408@accuvax.nwu.edu> psrc@mtunq.att.com (Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes: >At the office, I always answer with the name of the company and my >name. It has just the right effect on wrong number callers; if >they're expecting to reach someone at the Labs, they ask if I know how >I can reach someone (and I can usually transfer them); if not, they >apologize and hang up. Lucky you. Mine just hang up. I really do wonder what's going on at that motel.... But I'm reminded of a joke. Once a guy was manning the desk at some installation called Military Air Reconnaisance Support (or something like that), when the phone rang. He pick up the receiver and said, "MARS, Sergeant Wolowitz speaking." A moment of silence, and a voice at the other end said, "Jeesh, I *know* I didn't dial long distance!" It might even be true. I mean who would *invent* those jokes they publish in {Reader's Digest}, huh? ergo@netcom.uucp Isaac Rabinovitch atina!pyramid!apple!netcom!ergo Silicon Valley, CA uunet!mimsy!ames!claris!netcom!ergo Disclaimer: I am what I am, and that's all what I am! [Moderator's Note: I heard AT&T was going to start a new program called "Reach Out Outer Space" but they abandoned it when they experienced difficulty getting billing information back on a timely basis. :) PAT]