Typical Chinese Phone Conversasion

[Yezze]

So, tomorrow i am going to be calling someone (a good friend of mine) who lives in Beijing. I have to get a hold of her by tomorrow, so we can set up classes for next year, since we both will be dual enrolling (seniors in high school, but taking Calc II/III at a local university), but enough of that. If she picks up the phone, we can chat in English, but she is taking classes now, so I a feeling i will be getting her parents when i call, both whom, don't speak any English. They probably know of me, but I have never spoken to them. So i had a few questions.

When they pick up the phone, i will say hi, is this the qing residence? (assuming they say yes) i will say, my name is so-so, do you know me?. I assume they will say something like yes, then i will ask if holly is there and if so, can i speak with her... if not, what time will she be home.

Does anyone know if that will be most likely what the conversion should be like (this is more of a question for native speakers)? If not, do you happen to have any idea of what they might say?

(Personal stuff/questions, don't read if you don't want to)

I am kind of worried that they might ask me questions about my life or something, since depending on what they know or if they have seen pictures (concerned about ones from prom/homecoming), they might think that we are like bf/gf (i don't much about relationships in Chinese youth, so I don't know what her parents would think of me as if they saw... say pictures of me in a suit and her in a dress putting the corsage/boutonniere on each other). Could this be a possibility, or I am just over reacting/thinking (it's 1235am, and i have school tomorrow...) and need to go to bed?

This is kind of a weird question/set of questions, but being prepared is always nice.

Thanks for reading this wall of text!

[Daan]

I'm not a native speaker, but I imagine the phone call would unfold roughly like that, yes. I would just say Wéi, qǐngwèn, Holly zài ma? 喂，請問，Holly在嗎？ without explaining who you are. If she's at home, whoever picked up the phone will probably just hand over the phone to her. If not, you can then ask when she will be back. Her parents might not know her English name, though, so if you know her full Chinese name, I would suggest using that.

I don't think your friend will have shown those pictures to her parents unless she was sure they wouldn't mind, so I don't think you need to worry about that. They may turn out to be curious about who you are, but if I were you, I would just identify myself as Holly's tóngxué 同學 'classmate'.

Good luck!

[Yezze]

Daan, I like your suggestion, in theory, it should help me to avoid a conversation that could become very "interesting". If they did say something like 你是谁?, I could just tell them who I am and if they didn't know me, i would identify my self as her (美国)同學.

I probably wouldn't end up using 美国, because, I have a feeling I would only have to say, at the most, 喂，請問，He在嗎, for them to figure out that i am not Chinese.

[Shi Tong]

Yezze,

Remember that Chinese people "always" use their whole name (xing and ming), even sometimes amoung the family- so to sound a bit less like you know her "very well", you might want to say her whole name (whatever that is in Chinese).

I'd go with Daan's suggestion too- try to just ask if she's there. If she's not, you can say 她什么时候回来 tā​shén​me​shí​hou​huí​lai​ and listen out for the X + 点 diǎn​ (X being the number of the time she's coming home).

If they ask who you are- again, Use Daan's suggestion, saying you're her classmate. That's what I would do.

If it gets tricky, just explain that you're "not that good at Chinese" that might get you off the hook! ;)

我中文不太好 wǒ​Zhōng​wén​bù​tài​hǎo (dont forget the sandhi on the bu before the tai-- or if you want to fake that you're really not that good at Chinese- leave it 4th tone ;))

Good luck!