This is an All Ears English bonus episode live web class invitation plus what to say when you cut someone off on the phone.
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With your American hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
USA.
Let's talk about telephone English.
What can you do when you talk over someone accidentally and on the phone because of a bad connection?
Find out in today's episode.
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Hey, Michelle, how you doing today?
Hey Lindsay, I'm good.
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm good.
I'm so excited about this upcoming live web class.
It's going to be Jessica and Aubrey hosting live.
Are you excited?
Are you ready for it?
I am excited because I feel like this is a super important topic.
I mean, I feel like a lot of native English speakers could learn a lot of this from this as well.
Oh, absolutely.
And what is that topic that they're going to be covering on the live web class, Michelle?
It's about talking on the phone, right?
Yes, yes.
Talking on the phone, especially like in business.
I mean, that can bring a lot of nervousness.
A lot of nervous feelings.
I sometimes get nervous before talking on the phone.
And you know guys, Jessica and Aubrey are going to calm your fears and make you feel confident.
They're going to give you strategies and how to be awesome on the phone.
Yeah, they're going to give you the official title of the live web class is Three Steps to Fearless Phone Calls in English
And Michelle, where can they sign up?
Where can they go to sign up for the live web class?
They can sign up at allearsenglish.com slash phone.
P-H-O-N-E.
Good.
So guys, it's coming up at the end of July.
Make sure you go now and sign up.
Get your name on there and show up early to pre-party with them.
It's going to be awesome.
But Michelle, today I thought we could go a little bit into the topic of talking on the phone and the fact that we don't have the body language right.
We can't see the person.
So often what happens is we end up talking over them.
Does that ever happen to you when you're on the phone?
Yeah, it definitely can happen.
It's kind of...
I don't know, it can happen on the phone.
And I feel like, especially being online, a lot like online calls.
You know the internet can cut out or something like that.
And you end up having this awkward moment where you speak over someone.
And I don't know.
It's just.
It's different because we talk about how it can be okay to speak over someone.
But this is kind of a...
This is kind of a different thing.
You're speaking over them not for a good reason.
That's more just like a technical reason.
Right.
Like sometimes we talk about, actually, that could be another great episode idea.
Talking about finishing people's sentences and what we think about that, what our opinions are about people who do that.
I do that, by the way. and how to do it.
I think it can be a source of connection, but it can be annoying.
But we can talk about that another day.
So I think you're contrasting between that type of social connection when you do actually finish someone's sentence because you want to connect and identify, versus when you talk and all of a sudden they look surprised because they weren't ready for you to say something.
It's because you can't you know, can't necessarily see them or there's a cutoff with the internet.
Maybe you're on a Skype call, that kind of thing, right?
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So, um, yeah, that it happens.
It happens.
I mean, you were saying that it just you just had this experience.
I feel like this happens to me a lot.
And I don't know if it's my internet or what it is.
And in this particular case, we were on a video call.
We're on a zoom call.
Okay, but it happens too.
And we're going to give you guys some language to deal with this, whether you're on the phone and it happens and you can't see them, or whether you're on a Zoom call.
But yeah, this morning I was on a call with other entrepreneurs two other entrepreneurs around the world.
And We're talking business and the person that was sharing her challenge.
I spoke quickly and something happened with the connection on her end, but it ended up just being very abrupt the way I spoke and I felt bad.
And so we don't want our listeners to have to deal with this, right?
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
So guys, I mean, this, unfortunately, it happens.
It happens all the time.
But there's ways to get around it.
There's ways to, you know, really use your words to express...
You know, that this kind of situation is happening.
Maybe that you didn't mean to do it, that it's something with the tech.
Right.
So we're going to teach you guys what to say in these situations.
Right, Lindsay?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think you're right, Michelle.
I mean, the point is we can't avoid these.
We want to give you guys the connection English skills that it's bulletproof.
It doesn't matter what happens.
You have the power and the confidence to perform and connect, no matter what the outside scenarios are bad internet, bad phone, background music, background noise.
You have the bulletproof skills to connect, no matter what right.
So today we're going to give you three of those phrases of what to say if this embarrassing situation actually does happen.
Right, right, right.
Exactly, exactly.
Okay, so the first thing you can say is, sorry, I think there's a delay.
Yeah, and I like your tone of voice.
Sorry.
You can use that if it suits your personality or you just be more straightforward, right?
Sorry, I think there's a delay.
So that really does communicate and it can make sure they know that that's what's going on.
It's either on your end or their end, but they may not realize that.
They may just think you're being rude, right, Michelle?
Right. right right right exactly exactly so then you're just explaining it right um so yeah that's that's a good one to use lindsay what's another one okay so the next one guys is this sorry i think you cut out i didn't mean to interrupt so you know that cut out michelle that is a phrasal verb and what does that mean i think you cut out Well, in this situation, it's that your voice broke up.
Either maybe there was an internet problem or maybe a phone signal problem.
But that moment when you kind of, you don't hear them.
Yeah.
See, I was just doing it.
I was just trying to imitate cutting out, right?
Right.
So if that happened, if I all of a sudden didn't hear you, I would have thought you finished speaking and I would start speaking.
And then all of a sudden you're still you start speaking again.
You're still speaking.
And I'm I've started speaking.
It's a big mess.
OK, so we need the phrasal verbs for this scenario.
Exactly.
So you can just say, oh, sorry, I think you cut out.
I didn't mean to interrupt.
Right.
So you're explaining what happened and you're kind of apologizing.
It's not that serious, but it's good to say.
Yeah.
And I mean I think we'll touch on this at the end of the episode, but it really comes down to intention.
You need to make it clear in that moment that you're not trying to talk over them.
And that's what these phrases do for you guys.
Okay.
But Michelle, we have one last phrase for our listeners that could be a little more straightforward, a little more all business, right.
Less personality, but sometimes we need that more formal.
What is it?
Exactly.
So this one is, excuse me, go ahead.
Okay.
I feel like maybe we need an apology there too.
What do you think?
Should we edit that phrase?
I feel like, oh, excuse me, go ahead.
You can add it if you want.
You could say, excuse me, sorry, go ahead.
Right.
You could add it in or I don't, I mean, like the excuse me is already one polite thing.
So I feel like you can kind of decide, oh, do you want to throw in an extra sorry or not?
Yeah.
I mean, you can tell who you're talking to, how much time they have, how formal they are.
These are all the cues that we take once we get on that call.
Okay.
So I mean that gives you guys three ways to compensate, to be maintain that connection when there is that bad connection on the other end, or you've cut someone off and you didn't mean to right.
The last thing we want to do is kind of get off on the wrong foot with someone, right, Michelle?
Exactly, exactly.
So, oh my gosh, that is a good point, Lindsay.
So, I mean, what else do we want to tell our listeners?
I mean, that's really it, guys.
This is just one example of the many issues that can come up when it comes to the telephone, right?
You need templates.
You need scripts.
You need things to say, ways to leave a voice message.
There's a lot that we need to know if we want to be confident and competitive in the business world when it comes to phone skills.
Right, Michelle?
Exactly.
Exactly.
That's a good point.
So, oh, my gosh, guys, you really have to go to this web class with Jessica and Aubrey.
So, again, it's allersenglish.com slash phone.
And you know you're going to just, you're going to leave there feeling confident, knowing you have strategies for talking on the phone in business.
And you're not going to feel that like uneasy feeling anymore.
You are going to get strategies on how to make it better.
Exactly.
And they have a specific three-step strategy that they're going to give you guys at that web class.
You're not going to get it anywhere else.
So go to that web class, go to allersenglish.com slash phone and sign up.
And they are excited to see you guys there.
Okay, all right, can't wait.
All right michelle, take care.
Bye, bye.
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