[English telephone lessons] How many ways to say hello? and Index

When two people meet in Tokio they say konnichiha which means hello. But if they aswer the phone, they say moshi moshi. Japan isn´t the only country to have its own special "telephone language". The Spanish say Hola for hello but on the phone they aswer "digame". Literaly translated dígame means "tell me" but this sounds very rude in english. Similarly, if a caller heard the words: I´m ready in London or New York, they´d think this was very strange. They´d ask: ´ready for what?. But in Italy the word "pronto" means exactly this.

The rules for aswering the phone in the international workplace seem to be more universal. Phone a business number and the receptionist is likely to say the name of the company  and aswer more politely or formally. For example, in english you make the polite offer of help with How can I help you? But even this isn´t very qutie as polite as the very formal Norwegian response: so god literally meaning  "be so good"

Saying telephone numbers

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