149. Telephone Services

Marco: Hello, everyone! And welcome to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.

Catherine: My name is Catherine. And today we have an elementary level lesson for you.

Marco: That's right. Today we're gonna take a look at our mobile phones, but not the physical phone. Now we're gonna talk about services that you can get for your mobile phone.

Catherine: All right, so, in America and many other places, you don't buy that little card with money on it. You actually have to pay every month for a service. So, we're going to learn about this today. Let's check out our dialogue.

A: Telco Mobile, how can I help you?

B: Yes, I'd like to activate my voicemail service, please.

A: Certainly, sir, we currently have a special promotion where we include voicemail services, call waiting and also three-way calling.

B: Sure, that sounds great! Are there any other fees?

A: Not at all. No hidden fees or surcharges, it is a flat monthly rate.

B: Perfect. I also wanted to know if there is any call forwarding service. I am usually out of town and would like my calls to be forwarded to a local number.

A: Yes, of course. We can activate all these services in about an hour.

Marco: All right, we're back. So, now let's take a look at some of these services on 'language takeaway'.

Language takeaway

Catherine: So, Marco, the first word that I wanted to talk about today is this verb to activate.

Marco: That's right. We have a verb here to activate and this means to make something start to work, to make something begin.

Catherine: That's right. So, to turn on, but you don't say "Hey, can you activate the light?"

Marco: Right. 

Catherine: You wouldn't say that. You say "Can you turn on the light?" But to activate means to start a service.

Marco: That's right. So, this is what we want today. We wanna activate some services. And the first one that we asked for is voicemail service.

Catherine: Voicemail service. Now let's think about the words that make up this one word 'voicemail', so it's like a mailbox for your phone.

Marco: That's right. Where you leave messages, obviously not text messages, but you leave voice messages.

Catherine: That's right. So, you know, I'm sorry,I cannot answer the phone right now. Please leave a message after the beep. That's my voicemail message.

Marco: That's right. So, it's actually a very useful thing. We'll talk about that a little bit later, but let's take a look at our next service. We also wanna get call waiting.

Catherine: All right. So, this is a very interesting service. I don't know if they have this in other parts of the world. But in America, if I'm talking on the phone to you, Marco,we're having a nice conversation, but then my mom calls when I'm talking, I hear beep-beep-beep... I hear some sounds and that means someone else is trying to call you.

Marco: That's right.

Catherine: All right. So, you can't hear this, but I can hear this. And that means if I want to talk to my mom, I'll say "Hey, Marco, listen,someone else is calling. Can I call you tomorrow?"

Marco: That's right. So, actually call waiting is a very useful service because the person that's calling you will never get a busy signal. You always seem available. But the good thing is that you can switch between calls.

Catherine: So I could say "Hey, Marco, listen, I think that's my mom. Can you hold? Can you wait?I will be right back." And then I push a button and then I can talk to my mom. And then my mom says "Okay,I'll talk to you later." I push a button and then "Marco, you're there?"

Marco: That's right. Very useful service as well. Now let's take a look at our next service that we are also getting as part of this package. We are getting three-way calling.

Catherine: So, from the name of this, we can think of three people talking, all right? So, maybe, Marco, you wanna talk to my mom too.

Marco: That's right.

Catherine: So, we can talk and then we add another person, so you can call a third phone number.1,2,3, me, you and someone else and the three of us can talk at the same time.

Marco: That's right. So, it's kind of a way of having a small conference between three people.

Catherine: That's right.

Marco: This is what you can do with three-way calling. You can call two people simultaneously and talk to them at the same time. So, a lot of great services here, I think we've learned a couple of different things. Why don't we review it and listen to the dialogue again?

A: Telco Mobile, how can I help you?

B: Yes, I'd like to activate my voicemail service, please.

A: Certainly, sir, we currently have a special promotion where we include voicemail services, call waiting and also three-way calling.

B: Sure, that sounds great! Are there any other fees?

A: Not at all. No hidden fees or surcharges, it is a flat monthly rate.

B: Perfect. I also wanted to know if there is any call forwarding service. I am usuallyout of town and would like my calls to be forwarded to a local number.

A: Yes, of course. We can activate all these services in about an hour.

Marco: All right, we're back. Now let's keep on going here towards the last half of our dialogue. Let's take a look at some more words on 'language takeaway' part two.

Language takeaway

Catherine: So, this first phrase in 'language takeaway' part two is hidden fees. Hidden fees, what are this?

Marco: The operator guarantees that there are no hidden fees. So, this is usually what we call the fine print, the small fees that we don't really know about. So, they say "Oh,it costs $3 a month. But you have small little hidden fees." Like if you're late on the payments, they'll charge you an extra dollar. Or if you use the service too much, they'll charge you another extra dollar.

Catherine: Right. So, a fee is something that you pay, all right? And something that is hidden means you cannot see it. And, so, like you're saying with this example,there are many many conditions, many many different things, rules that we have to follow. And if we don't follow those rules exactly, then maybe this company that provides the phone service will ask us for more and more money.

Marco: That's right. And actually it has to do a lot with our next word where she said that there are also no surcharges.

Catherine: Okay, so, a surcharge is an extra amount of money that you have to pay.

Marco: So, we say that this service has no hidden fees or surcharges. So, that means that we don't have to pay anything additional to what we're already paying.

Catherine: For example, some companies will say "Okay, pay us $10 and you get your new cell phone plan. But to activate your service is another $5, so the total price is $15." And that's a surcharge.That's an extra fee that you have to pay.

Marco: That's right. Okay. And continuing on the topic of money, she says "It is a flat monthly rate." Flat monthly rate.

Catherine: Monthly is an adverb that tells us how often we pay one time every month. But this term 'flat rate' is very very important and it happened... We use this term a lot when we're talking about paying fees. So, a flat rate means it does not change when you, for example,talk more on the phone.

Marco: That's right.

Catherine: So you pay the same amount every month.

Marco: That's right. A clear example is probably your internet service provider. You pay $20 a month. That's a flat rate.If you use the internet 24 hours a day, nothing happens. You don't pay more. If you use it less, you still pay the same amount of money.

Catherine: So, what if I paid $10 normally? But this month I use the internet a lot. Now I have to pay $15. Is that a flat rate?

Marco: No, that's not a flat rate.

Catherine: Okay, that changes with my use.

Marco: That's right. Okay. And now let's take a look at one last service that this man was also interested in getting. He says that he wants to get a call forwarding service, he wants to forward his calls to a local number.

Catherine: Okay, so, to forward something means to pass it along. So, call forwarding means that if I'm not available, for example, I'm not at home and someone calls my home.There's no one there to talk to the person that's calling, then maybe I could have a call forwarding service that will make the call go to my cellular phone, all right? So, the call forwarding means that the call will travel to another phone.

Marco: That's right. That's right. So, as you said, this is what call forwarding is and the word to forward, as you said, to pass along. Maybe many of you have done it in your emails. When you get maybe a nice message, you forward it to more of your friends. And this is the exact same definition.

Catherine: Exactly. So, you have one message and you pass it onto someone else. And so, call forwarding, you normally have this service if you're often on business trips or traveling, you're out of town.

Marco: That's right.

Catherine: It's very very helpful for people who are not in one place all the time.

Marco: That's right. So, why don't we listen to the dialogue one last time? And we'll be back in a bit.

A: Telco Mobile, how can I help you?

B: Yes, I'd like to activate my voicemail service, please.

A:Certainly, sir, we currently have a special promotion where we include voicemail services, call waiting and also three-way calling.

B: Sure, that sounds great! Are there any other fees?

A: Not at all. No hidden fees or surcharges, it is a flat monthly rate.

B: Perfect. I also wanted to know if there is any call forwarding service. I am usuallyout of town and would like my calls to be forwarded to a local number.

A: Yes, of course. We can activate all these services in about an hour.

Marco: So, talking about all these services, it's very interesting because many of these services are not really available everywhere in the world like, for example, voicemail.

Catherine: That's right. So, in China, no one really has voicemail. It's very strange for an American because you think: Well, if I'm not home, I want to know why this person called. But oftentimes you just have to call back and find out.

Marco: That's right. And actually I really think that voicemail service is a very good thing, especially if you need to leave a message for someone. You know, hey, we're at the restaurant, coming back when you have a chance... But also call waiting, I really really hate to call someone and have the busy tone.

Catherine: Beep, beep, beep...And then you know that they're on the telephone, but you don't know when they will stop talking on the phone. This really annoys me too,especially when I call for delivery food from a restaurant, it's like "Please, answer your phone!" But maybe someone's ordering a lot of food.

Marco: That's right. So, actually these services are very common in the United States. And I'm sure there are even more services. Now I know that you can have a telephone number, for example, in another country, bu it'll ring in the United States.

Catherine: Yeah, that's right. Or you can connect your computer and your messaging service and all these things to your phone. So, it's pretty technologically advanced, but I'm very curious to know about... You guys are listeners, what kind of services for your cell phone or for your land line? Do you have call forwarding or voicemail? Let us know, our website is englishpod.com.

Marco: All right, we'll see everyone there.

Catherine: Bye!

Marco: Bye!