Learn how to call a client and ask for a specific person
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is Business Japanese for Beginners Season 1 Lesson 13 - Asking for Someone on the Phone. Eric here. |
| Natsuko: こんにちは。 奈津子です。 |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to call a company and ask for the person you want to speak to. The conversation takes place in an office. |
| Natsuko: It's between Linda and the woman who answered her call. |
| Eric: The speakers are strangers and it’s a business call, so they’ll be using formal Japanese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Woman:はい、あさい商事でございます。 |
| Linda: ABCコーポレーションのベーカー リンダと申します。いつもお世話になっております。 |
| : かつまた様は、いらっしゃいますか。 |
| Woman:はい、少々お待ち下さい。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Woman:はい、あさい商事でございます。 |
| Linda: ABCコーポレーションのベーカー リンダと申します。いつもお世話になっております。 |
| : かつまた様は、いらっしゃいますか。 |
| Woman:はい、少々お待ち下さい。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Woman: This is Asai Shoji. How can I help you? |
| Linda: Hello. I’m Linda Baker from ABC Corporation. Thank you for your business. |
| : Is Mr Katsumata there? |
| Woman: Yes, he is. Please wait for a moment. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Natsuko, I hear moshimoshi a lot when Japanese people are talking on the phone, but we don’t have it in this lesson’s dialogue, do we? |
| Natsuko: No. I’d say もしもし is too casual for answering business calls. |
| Eric: Listeners, as you probably know, moshimoshi is “hello” on the phone. |
| Natsuko: If I made a phone call to a business establishment and a worker answered the phone saying もしもし, I’d be very surprised. |
| Eric: What do you mean? It doesn’t sound right? |
| Natsuko: Well… It doesn’t sound professional. Answering phone calls is a task often given to newcomers at Japanese companies. Through this task, they’re able to learn a lot of things. |
| Eric: Such as? |
| Natsuko: Workers’ names, clients’ names, who is doing what, what kinds of projects are going on... and of course business manners. |
| Eric: I see. So if moshimoshi isn’t a suitable “hello” for business situations, what are we supposed to say? |
| Natsuko: Give your company’s name plus でございます... Don’t worry – we’ll give our listeners more details in the vocab and phrases section. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: いらっしゃる [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to come, to go, to exist (honorific), V1 |
| Natsuko: いらっしゃる[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: いらっしゃる [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 少々 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a moment |
| Natsuko: 少々[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 少々 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last we have.. |
| Natsuko: お待ち下さい [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Please wait |
| Natsuko: お待ち下さい[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: お待ち下さい [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Natsuko: ～でございます |
| Eric: meaning "This is ~.” It’s the most polite copula and it’s often used in a business situation. |
| Natsuko: When answering a business phone call, say your company’s name and then add でございます。 |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at this lesson’s dialogue. Linda made a phone call to Asai Shoji. A female worker there answered the phone saying... |
| Natsuko: はい、あさい商事でございます。 |
| Eric: “Hello. This is Asai Shoji. ” |
| Natsuko: So listeners, remember this pattern...Company name plus でございます. |
| Eric: Listeners, it’s your turn. Imagine you’re working at ABC Corporation. The phone rings. You answer the phone by saying…? |
| (wait for 5 sec.) |
| Natsuko: ABCコーポレーションでございます。 |
| Eric: "This is ABC Corporation." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Natsuko: 少々 |
| Eric: meaning "a small amount" or "a small number." In this lesson’s dialogue though, it indicates "a small amount of time", so it’s translated as "a moment." |
| Natsuko: Basically, 少々 is the same as ちょっと or すこし |
| Eric: meaning “a little” or “a few.” |
| Natsuko: But 少々 sounds more polite than ちょっと and すこし. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Natsuko: Sure. 少々、お時間をいただけますか。 |
| Eric: .. which means "Excuse me for just a minute." |
| Natsuko: お時間 means “time.” いただけますか means “Can I receive…?” or “May I have…?” . So お時間を頂けますか literally means “May I have your time?” or “Can I bother you?” |
| Eric: So when used with the word for “a little”... |
| Natsuko:少々お時間を頂けますか |
| Eric: means “Can I bother you for a minute?” or “Excuse me for just a minute.” Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Natsuko: お待ちください。 |
| Eric: meaning "Please wait." |
| Natsuko: 待ってください also means ”Please wait.” But お待ちください is more polite and therefore suitable for business settings. |
| Eric: Natsuko, what’s the grammar behind this? |
| Natsuko: Hmm, it’s a bit advanced though... |
| Eric: I think it will be useful to know anyway. |
| Natsuko:Okay. The formation is an honorific prefix, o, plus the masu-stem of a verb, plus kudasai. Since it’s a little bit complicated, just try to memorize お待ちくださいas a set. And the most common phrase you’ll hear it in is...少々お待ち下さい |
| Eric: “Please wait for a moment.” |
| Natsuko: 少々 means “a little” or “a moment” おまちください means “Please wait.” |
| Eric: Can we hear that sentence again? |
| Natsuko: Sure. 少々お待ちください。 |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn to how to call a company and ask for the person you want to speak to. |
| Natsuko: Here’s the procedure. First, you need to introduce your company name and your name, and make a greeting. Then ask for the person you want to talk to. |
| Eric: OK. How do you introduce your company name and your name? |
| Natsuko: The pattern is [Company name] の [Your full name]と申します. |
| Eric:For example？ |
| Natsuko: ABCコーポレーションのベーカー リンダと申します。 |
| Eric: which means “Hello. I am Linda Baker from ABC Corporation.” Okay. After we say our company name and our name, what are we supposed to do next? |
| Natsuko: Make a greeting by saying いつもお世話になっております。 |
| Eric: which corresponds to “Thank you for your business” in English. |
| Natsuko:We learned いつもおせわになっております in Lesson 3 didn’t we? |
| Eric: We did. In this dialogue, the phrase indicates the speaker’s appreciation for having a business relationship. Okay Natsuko, can we hear what Linda said in the dialogue again? |
| Natsuko: ABCコーポレーションのベーカー リンダと申します。いつもお世話になっております。 |
| Eric:“Hello. I am Linda Baker from ABC Corporation. Thank you for your business.” Natsuko, can you give us an example? |
| Natsuko: OK. 花井自動車の伊藤文博と申します。いつもお世話になっております。 |
| Eric: “I'm Fumihiro Ito from Hanai Motor Corporation. Thank you for your business.” |
| Next, we’ll learn how to ask for the person you want to speak to. |
| Natsuko: Here’s a pattern you can use. [ Name] 様は、いらっしゃいますか。 |
| Eric: meaning “Is Mr./Ms.[ Name] there?” Can we hear a sentence from the dialogue? |
| Natsuko: Sure. かつまた様は、いらっしゃいますか。 |
| Eric: which means “Is Mr. Katsumata there?” Let’s look at the components one by one. |
| Natuko: かつまた様 |
| Eric: When you mention your client’s name, you use the extra polite suffix -sama after their family name. |
| Natuko:は |
| Eric: the topic marking particle |
| Natsuko:いらっしゃいます |
| Eric: the honorific version of the verb meaning “to exist.” |
| Natsuko:か |
| Eric: the question particle. So altogether… |
| Natsuko: かつまた様は、いらっしゃいますか。 |
| Eric: Meaning “Is Mr. Katsumata there?” |
| Natsuko: Okay. Listeners, it’s time to recap. |
| Eric: You made a phone call to a company to talk to your client, Ms. Baker. After you have given your company name and your name, you make a greeting saying… ? (wait for 5 sec.) |
| Natsuko: いつもお世話になっております |
| Eric: “Thank you for your business.” |
| Next, you want to ask for Ms. Baker.... “Is Ms. Baker there?” (wait for 5 sec.) |
| Natsuko: ベーカー様は、いらっしゃいますか。 |
| Eric: Listeners, did you get the answers right? |
| Natsuko: If you didn’t, please listen one more time. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Natsuko: またねー |
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