Answering the Phone in German

And other communication challenges

Short and sweet. Berliners may text and chat, but professionally they want to talk on the phone. Photo by yang miao on Unsplash

The TL/DR of this whole article can be summed up with ‘answer the phone by saying your last name.’ Yes, really.

Unless you know the caller, and it is a friend, answer unknown calls to your personal phone line by saying your last name. Say only your last name and wait for the caller to say who they are and why they are calling.

Example:

Ring
Callee: Müller.
Caller: Hallo, Frau Müller. Hier ist Herr Schmidt von [Company Name]

Conversation continues ….

For some reason, this took me ages to learn. The German classes that I’ve taken don’t really cover this. They teach you how to call other people (restaurants, stores, etc.). And they teach you the way to conduct formal business phone calls as the caller, or sometimes the representative of your company. But, for some reason, not how to answer your regular phone at home.

I mean, I guess it’s not that complicated.

But I kept …