This week's topic reminded me of the first thing my German lecturer told my class on the first day of class. It was how to communicate with her via the telephone.
Here's the German way to opening a phone conversation:
Me: Ring...
Lecturer: Geiser.
Me: Eileen.
Lecturer: Hallo Eileen, und wie gehts...
(Hello Eileen, how are you?)
And then followed by the conversation topic.
A classmate of mine had forgotten that this was the norm for Germans, and one day he had to call Frau Geiser (my lecturer), and he opened the conversation in the typical Singaporean manner:
My classmate: Ring...
Lecturer: Geiser.
my classmate: Hello.
Lecturer: (in German) Hello? I don't know anyone named Hello. I think you've got the wrong number.
Of course my lecturer knew it was one of her students, and was just trying to be funny to get the right German response out of my classmate. It was hilarious when she told us about it in class the next day. She has a humourous way of embarrassing us at times.
We don't always adhere to these rules of phone conversations openings or closing, even in our own culture, especially so when we are speaking to someone whom we know very well.
For example, when I call one of my closer girlfriends, most of the time, we open with, "Hey!", and get on with our intention of calling. Or at times, there is no greeting at all, but simply straight to the point, "You know that thing I asked you the last time...."
Similarly, when we are hanging up, we just go, "Alright then." and hang up. It is even more minimalistic when I talk to my parents, when closing, it is something like this:
Mum/Dad: Ok bye.
Me: hmm.
Hang up.
=) Might seem quite rude to some, but this has became the way of telephone conversation between my parents and I, and they have also gotten used to this quick way of getting their message across and getting on with their work.
With SMS and other modes of communication, I think it is pretty common for telephone conversations to become shorter and governed by less strict rules.
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Hi Eileen!!
ReplyDeleteyea, i agree with you, i guess telephone conversations are going to be shorter and perhaps one day we might not even make one call per day?
when i am phoning my sister or she phones me, we'll go "hello" and jumps straight into the topic. or if the other caller pick up the call after numerous missed calls, we'll go "your phone drowned already ah?"
i guess that is one method how different social networks operate, like their unique way of starting phone conversations =D
An interesting scenario, which does show that minute differences in phone openings can have an impact upon intercultural communication. A great example.
ReplyDeleteboth you and gladwin are doing german!!
ReplyDeletei agree with u that we dont always adhere to certain rules of phone conversations openings or closing in particular when speaking to someone close to us.
when i call my brother, he'd pick up, say hello, and i'd just dive in straight to my points. and come to think of it, i never greet my family members and frens good morning/afternoon/evening at the beginning of my phone conversations. maybe i shall try. =)