Making business phone calls: Asking to speak with someone and leaving a message

🇹🇼 Giving your name and then your company is the expected way to introduce yourself on a business call. The receptionist will often repeat the company name back when passing you along.

🇹🇼 不好意思 is lighter than 對不起 "I apologize". Taiwanese use it constantly to soften small bad news, like the person you want being unavailable.

💬 開會 (kāi huì) literally means "open a meeting". 開 covers holding or running many things, such as 開車 "drive a car".

💬 Putting 在 (zài) before an action means it's happening right now: 在吃飯 "is eating", 在忙 "is busy".

🇹🇼 Saying the person is in a meeting is the standard polite reason when someone can't take a call, whether or not it's literally true.

💬 Chinese has no single word for "yes". You answer by repeating the key verb from the question, so 我可以…嗎？ gets 可以 as its reply.

💬 Add 嗎 (ma) to the end of a statement to turn it into a yes/no question, with no change in word order: 我可以走 "I can go" becomes 我可以走嗎？ "Can I go?"

💬 回 (huí) means "return" or "reply", and it pairs with other things too: 回信 "reply to a letter", 回家 "go home".

💬 麻煩 (má fan) literally means "trouble". At the start of a request it works like "sorry to trouble you", for example 麻煩你 "could I trouble you".

💬 Here 請 means "ask someone to", and the pattern is 請 + person + action: 請她等一下 "ask her to wait a moment".

🇹🇼 Starting with 麻煩 and then 請 stacks two layers of politeness. That suits asking a stranger at another company to do you a favor.

💬 電話 (diàn huà) means both "phone" and "phone number". The full term 電話號碼 "phone number" is often shortened to just 電話.

💬 Ending with 是 and letting your voice trail off turns this into a question, leaving a gap for the other person to fill in.

🇹🇼 Taiwanese mobile numbers start with 09 and are read digit by digit in a 4-3-3 rhythm, with a short pause between groups.

💬 會 (huì) before a verb here works like "will", and it carries a sense of promise. Another example is 我會打給你 "I'll call you".