داستان تلفن

Telephone tell-tale

Narrator

Hello. We’re back at Tip Top Trading. Anna is very busy dealing with Mr Lime’s big order for Imperial Lemons.

Anna

Yes?… Who?… I can’t hear you. Mr what? What? Mr Who? I don’t know, you tell me. Oh, you are Mr Hu… H-U: Hu. Er… No, Tom’s busy. Call back later. Bye. Tom, Mr Hu called you.

Tom

Mr Hu-

Anna

Mr Hu: H-U

Tom

Anna, Mr Hu is a very important-

Oh! What now?! Yes?

Tom

I’m going to have to talk to the boss about this.

Anna

No. I’m busy, give me your number, I’ll call you later. Yep, yep, 6… 8… thanks. Bye! Right, now where was I?

Paul

Anna, could I have a word?

Anna

Yes. Ohhh, he must want to tell me how pleased he is with the Citrus Ventures deal.

Paul

Now, Anna… biscuit?

Anna

Thank you.

Paul

I’m a little bit concerned about something.

Anna

“I’m a little bit concerned…” Doesn’t that mean something bad?

Narrator

Yes, Anna, Paul is using a polite turn of phrase to say he is unhappy about something. Let’s see what he’s got to say….

Paul

I think you need to work on your telephone manner.

Anna

Work on my telephone manner?

Narrator

It means the way you talk on the phone is not good enough and you have to improve it – to work on it to make it better.

Paul

Perhaps you should think about … Narrator

Perhaps you should think about – that’s a polite way of telling you to do something!

Paul

Anna, are you listening to me?

Anna

Yes, sorry, I was just sort of, err, talking to myself. Could you repeat what you said please?

Paul

Right, I’ll start again. I said: I’m a little bit concerned about your telephone manner. You need to work on the way you speak to clients. Perhaps you should think about being a bit more polite to clients; it’s important for the image of the company.

Anna

Oh okay.

Paul

You can go now – take another biscuit with you – that’s my last chocolate wafer, you lucky thing!

Denise

Anna? Is everything all right?

Anna

Yes.

Denise

What’s the matter?

Anna

Paul says I need to w-w-w-work on my telephone manner.

Denise

Well I was a bit concerned about it myself. And I think Tom actually mentioned it to Paul.

But, look, I’ll help you if you like. I’m a bit of an expert on the phone. I’ll give you some lessons.

Anna

Oh thank you.

Denise

Come in early tomorrow morning, before the others get here and we’ll practise.

Anna

Thank you Denise, that’s very kind.

Narrator

Wow! Denise is actually being nice to Anna. Amazing! Although from what I’ve heard of Denise on the phone, she’s only ever gossiping with friends. Paul was very gentle and polite in the way he explained to Anna there was a problem and that she needed to improve some things. He used these phrases: I’m a little bit concerned about…

You need to work on…

Perhaps you should think about…

Let’s see if Denise manages to teach Anna anything useful next time. Until then!