So, I've contacted to my companion through Skype. What do people usually say first in this situation? "How are you"? or giving a name first and then "How are you"? Or are those two phrases are incompatible with each other... if you give a name do you need to avoid How are you?
Asked
Active
Viewed 3,000 times
2
-
What do you mean by "companion"... because one usually knows the name of their "companion". – Catija Jul 01 '15 at 19:19
-
Curious, is the Skype interaction in your native language that formalized? Every Skype I've been on has been pretty informal. As with your previous question, we really need to know the level of formality you feel is necessary... are you talking to a client, a co-worker, a friend, your boss? Give us more information for the situation. – Catija Jul 01 '15 at 19:24
-
@Catija Ok, how can I call a man who I'm going to talk to? – Dmitrii Bundin Jul 01 '15 at 19:39
-
@Catija I'm going to talk more likely to a boss than a co-worker.... – Dmitrii Bundin Jul 01 '15 at 19:40
-
1It's not so different from a phone conversation where you know from caller ID who is calling. How would you greet this person on the phone? – ColleenV Jul 01 '15 at 19:45
-
@ColleenV If I called up the person, I'd give them a name first... – Dmitrii Bundin Jul 01 '15 at 19:51
-
My conversations on Skype usually start with a heartfelt prayer to the VOIP gods for a streaming rate greater than 56.6K... – Damien H Jul 02 '15 at 00:54
-
- Are you referring to skype's audio/VOIP function or to its chat/IM function? 2) Your use of companion seems odd. Did you mean colleague or company?
– CodesInChaos Sep 28 '15 at 15:34
2 Answers
5
There's nothing wrong with "Hello, this is Colleen." Then you should pause for just a moment to see if they want to respond, and if not, ask any polite question like "How are you?", "Is this a good time to talk?", or "Is my volume OK?"
Personally, I find that questions about the quality of our connection and whether they can easily hear me when I speak are the most useful sorts of questions. You want to correct any issues with the volume or position of your microphone and/or webcam before you really start talking.
ColleenV
- 11,971
- 13
- 47
- 85
2
I most often start Skype conversations with "Hello!", or "Hi, !" Similarly to a phone conversation, the other person will usually reply with a similar greeting, possibly followed by "How are you?"
I find that Skype and other VOIP calls tend to follow similar protocols as an old-fashioned phone call.
Aaron Brown
- 1,597
- 10
- 19