Subject: Answering the phone
Author:
Posted on: 2016-04-08 10:50:00 UTC
I know quite a few people who don't answer the telephone like that, but my parents (and my sister) still do when they're not expecting the call. I think it's one of those old fashioned things that is slowly dying out.
I've never heard anyone answer their phone with "[last name] residence" before, but that may be just me.
I recently ran across this funny video on YouTube: "On the phone [Surviving Germany]".
While it is clearly comedic in nature, is there any truth to his claim that Brits used to answer the phone with their phone number and that Germans answer with their name? Given that there is a German and many Brits on the Board, I'm sure than I can get an answer straight from the source.
And to all of you non-Americans out there (and we've recently learned that there's quite a few of you), do any of you answer the phone in any way other than the standard "Hello" or "[last name] residence"?
Yes, the traditional, polite way of answering the phone is saying [last name], so that the caller knows that he didn’t dial a wrong number (children living with their parents should say [first name, last name] to clarify that they aren’t the parent).
I still have this habit from when I was young (that’d be last century’s sixties).
But in more modern times many Germans became wary of telling their name to strangers who might just have dialed a random number to hear what they would get, so it became quite common to just hear “Hallo” or “Ja”.
Business rules, of course, are different.
HG
Nothing more than a 'hello' or 'good morning/good afternoon' is usually necessary here in the UK. If it's a relative or family friend calling, they usually just continue with whatever they want since they recognise my voice. If it's a business or company calling, they'll go on with their thing. ("I'm calling to talk to you about [whatever]...") or will ask who they're talking to if they need to talk to say, my Mum or whoever.
Since I'm not the oldest, I don't remember a time of answering with your phone number here in the UK, but I can't say it didn't happen so I dunno. :P
You're British? That's interesting. If you don't mind me asking, what's with the Japanese username?
The reason is actually a kind of stupid story, but if you're interested:
My first fandom online was Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side, which is a Japanese dating game series. The one I played first had a character called Himuro Reiichi, who was a teacher, but his students nicknamed him Himurrochi. I double nicknamed him 'Himochi' by cutting the middle bit out, and put 'is awesome' at the end, because he was my favourite character, and I was a dumb internet newbie.
I'd honestly change the name now since I'm not in that fandom and it being Japanese while I'm not is maybe a little dodgy? But it's been my name for so long online that it's kinda stuck, and most people know me as Mochi online now (or Mocha). So it might be confusing to try and swap to something else. The only thing I'm not Himochi/HimochiIsAwesome/AwesomeHimochi on would be Tumblr, and that's only because I grabbed a canon URL.
Hopefully nobody finds it offensive or anything since it's maybe slightly weeby? I don't know. But I mean no offence, and if it annoys people I can just rename myself on here to something less dumb. :P
If you need to.
Mochi works well enough.
If you're careful with it, no-one will notice.
I will, of course, because I suggested it, but I don't count as no-one.
Who the hell are you?
I don't remember you introducing yourself...
You generally don't need to worry that someone's going to take offense at your username here at the PPC. I was just curious about it.
But if you're actually curious about my username, it was my username back on Neopets. Long story short, I originally wanted it to be sonofheaven, but someone already took it, so Neopets suggested adding on the "176". I took that option, and the username stuck. It's one of three handles that I go by online (and no, I'm not revealing the other two).
Religion?
I did mention the origin of my username before, but it seems that that post is no longer avaiable. So here's the explanation again: I was looking for a username that reflected my Christian faith. Though as Christians, we are sons of God, "sonofgod" is obviously out, given that the title, without more, refers to Jesus. So I decided on "sonofheaven" instead.
And I already explained to Scapegrace how the 176 got tacked onto the end.
I know quite a few people who don't answer the telephone like that, but my parents (and my sister) still do when they're not expecting the call. I think it's one of those old fashioned things that is slowly dying out.
I've never heard anyone answer their phone with "[last name] residence" before, but that may be just me.
You usually get "hello" or "shalom". Businesses and services usually get "[name of business/service], how can I help?".