Answering the phone ／電話の受け取りについて

Yeah, 課 then nameです if NAISEN

県 included at beginning if GAISEN

What the penguin said

Our protocol is to say "Aomori City Hall, KA Name, your surname."
Also, what the heck happened to everyone here? Using NIPPONGO on these forums?!

Oh and my phone is shared by three people, including myself, so even when it gets switched to me I say 「お電話変わりました、GAIKOKJINです。」

I don't know, if I don't tell people my name they usually can't tell I'm a foreigner. Though I've been listening to recordings from my interpreting class and I also don't sound like a native, so.

I say （○○市役所）国際交流課○○です。 I use my first name because that's what I told everybody to call me when I got here (and my supervisor once mentioned that if I used my last name people who know me might be confused) but I suspect there are a lot of people who assume that it's my last name...

Like Dosanko, I don't say my name when I answer the phone. I used to, but that would often cause the person on the other end of the line to get flustered and behave unpredictably, so I just say the name of whatever division I happen to be in at the time (this has changed twice since I got here), which happens to be the 観光誘客課 at the moment

so, when i answer the phone i say "岐阜県観光誘客課です"

one time a person just paused for a while (like a good three or four seconds of dead air) and then said

"変わってください"

i was like uh

okay

to who?

and they just said "変わってください" again

never had a problem since i stopped saying my name

My workplace is a city hall, but my 担当 also manages the international society. When there’s an outside call, we answer the phone as the international society, but when it’s a call from within city hall, we answer as our 課. The difference is the way the phone rings—one long ring followed by short rings if it’s from outside city hall—but if someone doesn’t catch which call it is the default is usually to answer as city hall, I’ve noticed. Though sometimes if we answer as the international society we get, “Huh?? Isn’t this city hall?” so it’s not really fool-proof.

If within city hall, it’s just 市民相談課 first name です. Easier just to say my first name since that’s what most people know me as. If answering as the international society, it’s (city name)国際交流協会 (name)です or と申します.

My name’s obviously foreign and if they catch it sometimes people will speak slower, but other times I think they might mishear it as a Japanese name if they’re not expecting it.

○○県国際課(KATAKANA-ized last name)です。
This is so when ALTs call me they can tell me by my last name/です is the usually the easier ending for them to get.
There's no difference between 内線 and 外線 in ringing or caller ID so...it's always up in the air.
There's a rule here that we're supposed to say our names when we answer so we can "take responsibility" or something but occasionally this is ignored.
Sometimes my translation soup will say 国際課(group name)担当(last name)でございます。 which is always exciting like "Wooooo yeah throw that group name in there!"

Fun story: Was talking with an ALT today. They say, "I'll call you right back, just a second." Phone rings approximately 60 seconds later. I answer, "Hello," for probably the first time ever on my office phone. Person on the other side is from the Cultural Affairs Division who was calling for me but she was like "EH??" and I was all like, "あ、すみません（name)さん、英語のお電話をお待ちしておりますので。" and the new person who sits across from me just died laughing. So that happened. I am a cool cucumber.

^ hue I remember that （笑）

Sparkles you are indeed a SUZUSHII KYUURI. At least it was someone you knew and not some angry oyaji heh. Also kind of surprised that your ALTs just call your office directly...

I want this to be a new ranking on the CHIRP

Ahh are those based on cardinal directions? But if you have to use the sounds would you know which way is north? I never know which way is north.

When they say their name/where they're calling from, and you don't catch it, what do you say?

And when you still don't catch it because they refuse to slow down, what then?

This. I can usually get the section if it's within the City Hall, but companies fly right by me most of the time.

Fun story: A week ago, someone from our old section named 出町さん called and I mistakenly said "Yo, soup, it's 出前さん."
Only realised how much of a dunce I sounded after I passed over the phone.

yeah if that's the case, just concentrate on getting either the name or where they're from. one is better than neither, and most of the time the person they want to speak to probably knows who it is anyway