How do they answer the phones in other languages?

[Mops]

@wolfman

In German class in highschool we were taught that the only proper German way to answer the phone was

“Hier ist Müller”

Is that out of date or were we taught wrong?

It’s unusual that way (sounding a bit awkward) but not incorrect. Answering the phone with just your name is much more common.

[ltfire]

In da Bronx, it’s ‘YO’.

[dangermom]

In Denmark, they also answer with their own names. Its goes “Det er Mette.” (It is Mette, or essentially, Mette here)

[Nunavut_Boy]

Very interesting. Thank you for the responses. I think my new telephone affectation will be to answer the phone in the German style. Since my last name is German, this should do nicely. I sometimes answer the telephone like a frenchman just to fuck with people. (“Oui allo? Qui? Je m’excuse monsieur, je pense que vous avez trompe de numero”). Just looking for a little fun.

[DougC]

• • • Where I work, there are Bulgarian people who work for the floor cleaning service, and they answer it “da”, pronounced like as in “la-tee-da”, with the vowel upturned as if a question. We joke with them that we can’t remember how to say anything else, but they taught us to answer the phone in Bulgarian.
• We were all sitting in the break room one day and one of the Bulgarian’s name is Anna, and her cell phone is laying on the table while she’s eating and it rings. So my manager (an American guy) picks it up before she can and answers it and says “Da?” and a guy with a heavy Bulgarian accent on the other end says “Who the fuck are you?”
  ~

[monica]

@DarkSideoftheFloyd

Spanish uses “Alo?” (accent on the “A”) or “Diga”.

Or “Si?”

[GingerOfTheNorth]

If you’re Inuktitut, it’s ‘Eee’. Means ‘yes’. Then usually it’s “Mom! Kaalunaaq!*” and you get an English-speaking adult on the phone.

*White person -literal translation ‘eyebrow belly’

[monica]

@DarkSideoftheFloyd

Spanish uses “Alo?” (accent on the “A”) or “Diga”.

Or “Si?”

[Fear_Itself]

Cecil weighs in on why we say “hello”:

Alexander Graham Bell suggested “ahoy!” as the standard telephone greeting, but it didn’t catch on–for obvious reasons, you may think. Don’t be so sure. Brooklyn College professor Allen Koenigsberg, author of The Patent History of the Phonograph, argues that the word that did catch on, “hello,” was previously unknown and may have been invented by the man who proposed it, Thomas Edison.

[Bad_News_Baboon]

@monica

Or “Si?”

I guess it depends on which Spanish you are referring to.
As there are many nationalities that speak spanish, I am sure there are equal ways to answer the phone!

My mom’s family is from North Mexico and they answer the phone “Bueno?”.

[FilmGeek]

Mr. Burns style “ahoy-hoy”.

I once tried to call Hong Kong when a friend of mine was studying there. She gave me the wrong country code and the phone was answered “moshimoshi”. Now I know. Thanks.

[chukhung]

@Fear Itself

Cecil weighs in on why we say “hello”:

Alexander Graham Bell suggested “ahoy!” as the standard telephone greeting, but it didn’t catch on

In Slovakia (and, I belive, in the Czech Republic), it’s the caller who says “ahoy!”. From this page

Informal [telephone] conversations are much easier. Most people answer with a simple, “Prosím”. When making the call you should still start with an introduction: “Ahoj, tu je Pat. (Hi, it’s Pat)”, although in these days of caller ID you’ll often find people starting a conversation with simply “Ahoj, to som ja (Hi, it’s me)”.

[Burnt_Sugar]

@MC$E

When I went to Taiwan, they answered the phone with: “Wei?” Pronounced similar to way and weigh.

China is the same, AFAIK. Mandarin speakers, anyway.

[Crandolph]

When did “hello” leap from the phone to face-to-face contact? And did it replace “Good day/morning/evening?”

[Bambi_Hassenpfeffer]

DarkSide, you said you hear Spanish speakers answer with the A in “alo” accented, but I’ve only ever heard “¿Aló?” when they answer this way, with the O accented.

Locally, I’ve heard them answer the phone with either Dime, Dígame, Diga, Bueno, Sí, or Aló, depending on where they’re from and whether they already know who’s calling them (say, with caller ID).

Dime == tell me (informally)
Dígame == tell me (formally)
Diga == tell or say, meaning pretty much “speak!”
Bueno == lit. good, but basically hello
Aló == transliteration of English hello, pronounced aah-LOW (más o menos), with the aah pronounced for a very short time.

Also, in German class, the frau told us that we should answer “Hier Gerta!” (assuming your name is Gerta), but I of course would defer to tschild’s post, what with her (?) being a native and all. Standard Teutonic efficiency, as someone else called it. Who it is, who he’s with, and where he is all in the opening sentence.

[Alessan]

@Noone Special

Not universal by any means, but many Israelis (including me) answer the phone “Shalom” (“peace” – also used as the generic greeting and as the generic parting [“hello” / “goodbye”])

I hate it when people do that.

(To everyone else: “Shalom” is considered a rather formal greeting around here; Israelis, perhaps the second most informal people in the world - after the Aussies - have a hard time handling unexpected formality. Makes us think we’ve done something wrong.)

[Mahaloth]

The Chinese either say, “Wei?” or “Wei, Ni Hao”.

[Noone_Special]

@Alessan

I hate it when people do that.

(To everyone else: “Shalom” is considered a rather formal greeting around here; Israelis, perhaps the second most informal people in the world - after the Aussies - have a hard time handling unexpected formality. Makes us think we’ve done something wrong.)

To elaborate: in this era of caller-id, I’m much less prone to answering “Shalom” – if I know who’s calling I’ll answer “Hi” or “Ahalan” or whatever…

But if you were to call me, then since I don’t know your number you’d definitely get the “Shalom” treatment

[Ponster]

Not sure of the spelling but in Polish it is “Slucham” (there should be a line through the ‘l’ making it

[Cat_Jones]

Apologies for previous post from Ponster - I realised I was posting under the wrong name, got flustered and pressed the wrong thing. :smack:

Anyway - in Poland it is “Slucham” with the Polish “l with a line through it” making it a “w” sound. “Soo-ham”. Translates as “I’m listening.”.

In the UK the original fashion was to give your number - in fact my father still does this, no ‘hello’ just straight in with “digit digit digit digit digit digit”. (He is looking over my shoulder as I type this and has just informed me that “if you are doing it properly you should give your exchange as well” example “Blidworth 2717”.) Current advice is not to do this as you will be giving people your number when they might not have known it .