Chinese Class: Make A Phone Call

By Author: james toma
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Making a phone call sometimes is the first step in building business relationships and can have important impact on the success or failure of such relationships. For those who learn Chinese online, 商务电话礼仪 (shāngwù diànhuà lǐyí) business etiquette—Make a phone call is an important one.
In the context of business Chinese, when you make the first contact, the first sentence should be “喂，您好！(wèi, nínhǎo!) How do you do?” We usually don’t use “你好 (nǐhǎo),” which means hello, because “您 (nín)” shows more respect than “你 (nĭ)” does in Chinese language, and is often used to call those who are older or with higher ranks.
Another etiquette you would learn in your business Chinese class: when receiving a phone call and not knowing who is calling, we often use “请问您是哪位 (qǐng wèn nín shì nǎ wèi) may I know who is speaking please?” But in daily conversations, we often use a less respectable form: “你找谁 ...
... (nǐ zhǎo shuí) whom are you calling?” “请问 (qǐng wèn) may I ask… please?” shows that you are polite and have a good manner in Chinese language. “哪位 (nǎ wèi)” and “谁 (shuí)” both mean who. “哪 (nǎ)” in this sentence means which, “位 (wèi)” is a measure word. “你找谁 (nǐ zhǎo shuí)” is used in daily Chinese and the tone is not so polite.
The teacher in your Chinese class would also tell you that when you are ready to hang up the phone, you can say:
Zàijiàn, hěn gāo xìng hé nín zài diànhuà zhōng gōu tōng, bǎo chí lián xì.
再见， 很 高 兴 和 您 在 电 话 中 沟 通， 保 持 联 系。
Goodbye, nice to talk with you on the phone, and keep in touch.
Chinese culture is profound and there are lots of points we should note in our interpersonal relationships. If you’re interested, visit our site to learn more
http://www.echineselearning.com/