Phone Calls in English Made Easy | English Podcast for Learning English | Learn English Fast

Unknown number. Your heart jumps. Do you answer? Lisa's phone rang in the park, with three dogs, including a beagle chasing a squirrel, and it was the hotel: she got the internship! But she answered with "Yes?", heard the wrong name, shouted "Biscuit, no!" at her new manager and hung up too early. John helps her fix every part of the call. Learn five tools for phone calls in English: pick up like a pro ("Hello, this is...", "Speaking", "May I ask who's calling?"), catch it or check it ("Did you say Dev or Beth?", "Could you spell that for me?", "Let me read that back"), ask the soft way (could you, would you mind + -ing, I was wondering if), say no without saying no ("I'm afraid I can't... Would Monday work instead?", "Can I get back to you?") and close the call ("Just to confirm", "I'll let you go", "I look forward to working with you"). At the end: a real voicemail at normal speed and the same call done right. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 4:19 Pick up like a pro 7:58 Catch it or check it 13:30 Ask the soft way 18:56 Say no without saying no 24:06 Close the call 28:59 Listening game 30:43 The call done right 33:08 Recap WHAT YOU WILL LEARN 1. Pick up like a pro 2. Catch it or check it 3. Ask the soft way 4. Say no without saying no 5. Close the call QUESTION OF THE DAY What's the hardest kind of phone call for you in English? Tell us in the comments. RESEARCH MENTIONED Richard M. Warren, Perceptual restoration of missing speech sounds (Science, 1970). Listeners heard a sentence where one sound had been replaced by a cough; most reported hearing the complete word and could not say exactly where the cough was. The study was about hearing one missing sound, not about learning a language. John and Lisa are fictional characters with AI-generated voices. Their stories are written for English listening practice.