While teaching educated adult immigrants and international students in Canada and the United States, I have generally found them to be quite interested in learning social behaviors of their new or host country. They are eager to engage with their new community. Immigrants, in most cases, are additionally motivated to learn appropriate business etiquette to facilitate their job search and/or integration at work. However, the programs I have taught in provided either hardly any cultural content in their curriculum or only some mostly general cultural concepts. No program originally provided sufficient examples of cultural behavior to satisfy students’ curiosity about how to act appropriately in the situations they are likely to encounter. Though I could have provided examples out of my own life and work experience, I have not felt that such a personal approach to cultural norms is adequate. The approach that I have taken to bridge the gap is to bring surveys from mainstream newspapers and magazines, which are read by native speakers, into class. The topics, having been vetted by publishers as being of interest to their readers, are almost guaranteed to engage my students as well. Indeed, students appreciate reading material that isn’t geared only to ESL learners, that they would also read in their native language. This article presents an example of one such topic: telephone etiquette. The topic is of interest to all ages, as mobile phones are popular, near-universal tools nowadays. Speaking on the phone in English is a daunting task for many ESL learners, so they are motivated to find out more about expected phrases and manners in phone conversations in the host country. Discussions about telephone customs and appropriate language ensue. Not only language-related but also generational cultural differences are found among classmates and survey respondents.

TELEPHONE ETIQUETTE―TWO TOPICS FOR CULTURAL DISCUSSIONS

What is “etiquette”? Etiquette is a set of conventional or formal rules for social behavior, that is, good manners. The sense of what constitutes good manners, and thus etiquette, varies from culture to culture. In the business realm, a related term is “soft skills,” which can be defined here as interpersonal communication skills, verbal and nonverbal, and culturally appropriate behavior in business situations. (Broader definitions include leadership skills, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and other factors.)

The telephoning unit for my classes of intermediate-level internationally trained professionals begins with a general question such as: “What do you think are some bad communication habits at work?” For my students, “at work” means in an office setting. (Most of the points made here are also of interest to students who are not immediately seeking work.) Many good responses are elicited, which usually include the topics listed below.

In my researching of business articles, surveys, and polls between 2005 and 2009, three communication behaviors at work are shown to be rated as most annoying. All of them include telephone etiquette and communication soft skills:

1. Inappropriate greetings, in person or on the phone
2. Cell phones, especially unattended ones that ring constantly
3. Loud talking, especially on the phone

Topics 1 and 2 are developed further below.

Inappropriate Greetings

Generally, around the world, a “Good morning” or other face-to-face greeting is welcome at work. In fact, many people―77 percent of an international survey of 2,200 employees―are very annoyed if they are not greeted in the morning (”Watercooler,” 2005). Some cultures have elaborate greeting customs, including asking about family members’ health and well-being, and conversations might take as long as 5 to 10 minutes. In North America, however, people don’t often spend a lot of time on these greetings, sometimes just saying “Hi. How are you?” (which does not require an answer beyond “Good, and you?”) while walking past each other, without stopping for a conversation. Students who (will) work with English-speaking Americans will get along better if they understand that a short greeting does not imply coldness or lack of interest in a colleague as it might in other cultures, [1] and a discussion of greeting styles in students’ cultures may be helpful.

Regarding greetings over the phone, it “is not enough just to memorize the various greetings. . . . It is crucial to know the when, how, and why of using them,” as Cohen said at the TESOL panel on pragmatics (Cohen, 2009). Students should learn the formulaic sentence “This is [name]” expected in the United States and Canada. Greetings used in other cultures may not be understood well among North Americans:

“Smith” [person’s last name] said when answering the phone―correct in Germany and some other countries
“Hi, it’s me. Call me back.”―appropriate voicemail message in Mexico (Laroche & Rutherford, 2007, p. 156)

In North America the latter might be used among close friends but comes across as unprofessional in business calls; whereas in Mexican business situations it is acceptable―the listener is expected to recognize the speaker and the urgency level by the tone of voice. After the greeting, North Americans expect to chat a little with colleagues on the phone, to cultivate good relations and let others get to know them. For students in or from countries with very direct conversational styles or where using a telephone is still expensive, it might be a new concept to engage in small talk at the beginning and end of a business phone call. Immigrants, or nonnative English speakers who join an American company anywhere in the world, may be perceived as lacking soft skills if they cannot follow expected conversation patterns.

The Prevalence of Cell Phones, Often Unattended

Mobile phones have the potential for causing lots of problems in a shared office, both when they are in use (with loud voices – see point 3 above) and when they are not in use (when the phone is left unattended and rings constantly). Surveys show that, after loud talking, unattended cell phones are consistently rated the second most annoying habit in many offices (Bartel, 2010). This topic can be extended by asking the class where and how it is appropriate to use a cell phone during the work day. Polls show that responses vary with age. For example, young people generally do not think it is rude to take calls when they are at a restaurant with coworkers, but older generation(s) do (Timson, 2005). The same pattern of responses occurs in discussions about checking a smartphone during a business meeting. Many people admit this is not good etiquette, but they do it anyway. Eighty-six percent of senior executives said in a 2007 poll that it is not unusual for their professional colleagues to quietly check and respond to e-mail on their smartphones during a meeting; but 73 percent of them do not approve of the practice (Immen, 2007). North American culture is not homogenous. Socializing with coworkers and attending meetings are situations that business students can expect to confront in the real world, so it is useful for them to understand that, unless they are in the senior executive category, most older managers will not approve of their cell phone use in a group environment, while young-thinking bosses might not mind.

CONCLUSION

Good soft skills include awareness of the etiquette that is culturally appropriate to one’s situation. That means respecting that telephone customs vary around the world and even within one country. Nonnative speakers of English need to be introduced to expected verbal expressions as well as a range of telephone manners. For ESL/EFL job-seeking or business students, understanding telephone etiquette can help them gain and keep a job. In fact, native speakers need such soft skills too, so these topics frequently appear in mainstream newspapers, magazines, and online resources. As mobile phones and smartphones become ever more prevalent in today’s world, telephone etiquette grows in importance.

REFERENCES

Bartel, J. (2010). Office soft skills 2. How to get along and get ahead in your career. Toronto, Ontario: Bartel.

Cohen, A. D. (2009). Learner strategies for performing intercultural pragmatics. ICIS Newsletter, 7(2). Retrieved fromhttp://www.tesol.org//s_tesol/sec_issue.asp?nid=3244&iid=12601&sid=1#167

Immen, W. (2007, April 27). Rude to check e-mail in meetings? Opinions split. The Globe and Mail, p. C2. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/search/?q=%22Rude+to+check+e-mail+in+meetings%3F+%22

Laroche, L., & Rutherford, D. (2007). Recruiting, retaining, and promoting culturally different employees. Burlington, MA: Elsevier.

Smith, H. (2009). Poll response in Your thoughts. In Community news. ICIS Newsletter, 7(3). Retrieved from http://www.tesol.org//s_tesol/sec_issue.asp?nid=3244&iid=12945&sid=1

Timson, J. (2005, April 27). Miss Manners is on the line – now turn off that cellphone. The Globe and Mail, p. C6. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/search/?q=%22Miss+Manners+is+on+the+line%22

Watercooler. (2005, Sept. 10). The Toronto Star, p. D11.

Joan Bartel, joanbartel@OfficeSoftSkills.com, teaches occupation-specific language courses at Humber College, Toronto. Her latest books, Office Soft Skills 1 and 2, will be available at the English Central booth at the 2011 TESOL Convention.

[1] See, for example, Smith (2009) for a short report on perceived coldness of English speakers by Spanish speakers in Florida.