Henk the telemarketer

[cherrysmum]

LOL...Henk called me from the netherlands, and when I anwered the phone, I thought it was a telemarketer and I hung up...so he called me back, and introduced himself...how awesome is that...got to talk to my "henkster" after all these years....can't wait for him to come stateside...wonder if he's ever heard bluegrass music before???....hummmmmmm???

[Cherry_pez]

Well how unfair is that? He never calls me. I probably scare him though.

[Lefty]

There's that obviously. Also, I don't have your number.

Yeah, I noticed another cultural difference between our countries from the many phone calls I've been making to the US the past few weeks (mostly for newspaper articles): Americans don't like to introduce themselves first on the phone. Why is that? I have a theory that maybe you feel it places you in some sort of subservient rol, to let the other person have the upper hand?

I kinda like making phone calls that require me to hit at least 16 keys on the phone. Feels... Exotic.

[cherrysis]

I remember calling Germany 20+ years ago and hearing the person on the other end answer using only their last name. I was so confused way back when and wondered why they hadn't said "HELLO"? I wondered too???

<font color="#000002" size="1">[ October 22, 2007 10:48 AM: Message edited by: cherrysis ]</font>

[Cherry_pez]

Nah. We are just a bunch of rude bastards and we like to make you feel the rudeness. [img]wink.gif[/img] Actually, we have always answered the phone saying "hello."

[Lefty]

I usually go "Hi, this is Henk" or if I'm in a good mood "Hi, this is Henk, how may I brighten your day?" I once answered jokingly with "House of Horrors, all pentagrams are 60 percent off today" and it was my grandma on the other end. I stopped joking around when answering the phone after that.

[cherrysis]

HAHAHAHA We like like to say

"Hi, this is Buddy, What's you're favorite color?"

[Cherry_pez]

SOmetimes I will answer "Empty Arms HoteL" in my best hick accent, which isnt too hard...and then there is "Thanks for calling Hell House". But typically that is when my MIL calls. I did do it once out of the blue and it was this old man from Norway who Mike met last summer and we sent him some old 8-track tapoes. He didnt get it. He kept saying..Mikael? Is Mikael? And I was thinking do I REALLY sound like a man to you? Anyway...tanngent...sorry.