A big fear for many people who speak English as a second language is speaking on the telephone. A lot of native speakers also fear telephone conversations for various reasons such as low confidence.
In this first tip my aim is to help you gain that confidence and never fear the telephone again.
First I want to talk about are some basic expressions, their meanings and some examples of use.
The basic expressions and their meanings are:
Hold on = wait
hang-on = wait
hang-up = finish the call
ring-off = finish the call
ring up = call somebody
put you through = connect you
get through to = contact on the phone
call back = return a telephone call
As you can see they are very simple and if you have spoken English on the telephone already you have probably already heard them.
Here are some example uses for you.
1. "Hello can I speak to John". "Hold on/hang on I will put you through".
2. "John just hung up/rang off on me".
3. "I can't get through to him can I ask him you call you back?"
You now need to practice these sentences by doing the following;
1. Get together with a friend or colleague and practice the sentences.
2. Then call your friend or colleague on a phone and practice again.
3. Record the call (ask permission first).
4. Repeat.
Be sure to do all the actions I have talked about so you can become confident on the telephone. Look out for part 2 which will be published soon.
Have fun
Liam
No comments:
Post a Comment