Following our conversation about unusual ways to answer the phone, listeners share several others: One guy answers with animal noises, another responds, “Hello, you’re on the air,” and a third simply greets callers with the “On the phone.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Clever Phone Answering”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Not long ago, we had a conversation about unusual ways of answering the phone, and Grant, we are still hearing from listeners about it.
Apparently, people only joke when they answer the phone. I don’t think anyone takes it seriously, or maybe I’m just imagining things.
Our inbox says otherwise. It’s true. What happened to professionalism?
Maureen Overhanden in Brewster, Massachusetts, told us that a young man who worked for her husband used to pick up the phone and just say, on the phone, “I’m busy. I’m on the phone with you.”
And then we heard from April Dahl, who said, “I have birds.” When I call a friend, he answers, “call, call.” And apparently this guy tailors his answers to whatever animals he knows the person lives with.
So I guess, you know, he’d call you and say, “meow.” Right, right. Oh, that’s a really good one. I love that.
And then I think my favorite is Galen Watts in Green Bank, West Virginia, emailed us to say that sometimes when answering his landline phone, he’ll use his radio voice and say, “Hello, you’re on the air.”
I’m going to start doing that. “Hello, you’re on the air.” And then he says, if they sound confused, he’ll add, “please turn your radio down.”
Well, turn your radio up. We’ve got another hour of fun stuff about language and linguistics coming your way.
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