礼节美语 Business Etiquette 067

陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作。他在走廊上遇到了美国同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

C：Amy, 你有时间吗？

A：Sure. What's up?

C：我刚才收到部门经理Mae的电话留言，她说我们在留言机上的留话千篇一律，应该考虑如何改变一下。

A：I haven't checked my voice mail yet. I have been out of the office so I haven't heard her message.

C：我简单告诉你一下吧？

A：I'm all ears!

C：她建议，我们不用说，“我不在办公室或是正在另外一条线上”，因为你不说，别人也知道。

A：What are we supposed to say?

C：不如改为告诉对方你在哪里，比如说去开会了，三点回来，让别人知道几点钟能找到你，或是能接到你的回电。

A：I always try to let people know when I am away from the office for a few days.

C：对了，Mae还建议，如果好几天不在办公室的话，可以在留言里说明，你什么时候有机会查留言，回电话。

A：Did she say more?

C：Mae还说，如果你不在办公室，可以把临时联络人的电话和姓名留在留言机里。

A：I've had people do that and when I called the other person, she wasn't in so I found myself in another voice mail. That's annoying.

C：没错，所以要事先弄清楚临时联络人是否会在办公室里。Mae还有不少建议，我一时记不起来了，你还是自己去听听吧。

******

当天晚些时候。陈豪和Amy又见面了。

A：Wow, Mae made some other good points about our greetings. I get tired of hearing "Your call is very important to me." I agree that we should drop that phrase¹, especially when it often lacks sincerity².

C：对啊，“你的电话对我很重要”根本就是废话。还有就是“我很遗憾没有接到你的电话 -- "I am sorry I missed your call." 有那个时间，还不如说点有用的。

A：I usually tell people that I will call them back as soon as possible. Mae says to avoid saying, "I'll call you back as soon as possible." A simple "I'll call you back" is all that is needed.

C：你觉得Mae说的有道理吗？

A：It's clear to me that we all have fallen into a rut, by leaving a greeting that sounds as if we are reading from a script³.

C：确实是有些千篇一律。那我们应该怎么做呢？

A：What we need to do is update our greeting on a regular basis so callers⁴ know that we are attentive⁵ to our message system.

C：我们还应该保证尽快回电。

A：But we don't need to take up more time than necessary.

C：好，我这就去改我的电话留言，就说 "Hello, this is Chen Hao. I will be in the office today. Please leave a message and I will call you back.”

A：Sounds good to me.

 

1 phrase   

n.短语，词组；成语，习语

参考例句：

• The phrase was caught on and immediately became popular.这个短语被采用后很快就流行了。
• That's exactly the phrase I was looking for.这就是我一直找的那个短语。

2 sincerity   

n.真诚，诚意；真实

参考例句：

• His sincerity added much more authority to the story.他的真诚更增加了故事的说服力。
• He tried hard to satisfy me of his sincerity.他竭力让我了解他的诚意。

3 script   

n.剧本，广播稿；文字体系；笔迹，手迹

参考例句：

• It's easy to identify his script.他的笔迹容易辨认。
• The script is massaged into final form.这篇稿子经过修改已定稿。

4 callers   

访问者( caller的名词复数 )； 呼叫者； 鸣叫物； 打电话者

参考例句：

• He is one of the regular callers here. 他是此地的常客之一。
• A good telephone voice can do much to improve the temper of irate callers. 电话中悦耳的声音可以大大消减通话人的怒气。

5 attentive   

adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的

参考例句：

• She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
• The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。