Don't hang up!

A basic course for telephone confidence

Ne quittez pas!
Nicht auflegen!
Attendere prego!
¡No cuelge, por favor!

Why develop telephone skills?

Globalisation and the increasing use of the Internet have meant that companies and organisations are likely to receive enquiries about their products and services from anywhere in the world.

Switchboard operators and telephone users generally have increasingly to deal with calls from speakers whose mother tongue is not English.

If telephone users have even very basic skills in a few languages, essential details about potential customers and their enquiries can be noted. This would allow the possibility of asking someone more competent in the language to return the call and follow up requests.

Who is the course for?

The course is designed for telephone users who may receive calls from abroad and who would like to learn sufficient language to allow them to engage in very simple exchanges with callers.

About the course

The course is very straightforward and will help you to learn about thirty short phrases in the foreign language. These will allow you to deal with the following situations:

• Receive a foreign phone-call and address the caller in the foreign language;
• Recognise the sounds of the foreign language and take down the caller’s co-ordinates;
• Recognise numbers and take down the caller’s number;
• Put the caller through;
• Ask if the caller wishes to hold;
• Inform the caller that the person they wish to speak to is not in, and end the conversation politely.

The course for each language comprises a course book and a CD. The CD contains all the dialogues with speaking and listening practice exercises.