Ring, ring

ME: Hello?

CALLER: Silence.

ME: Hello??
(with more emphatic intonation)

CALLER: silence

ME: Whaayee?
(Cantonese for Hello, with loads of tonality to show the onset of impatience)

CALLER: Silence.

ME: Daaaah Cho
(Cantonese for “wrong number”, intent on getting my slippy-slide-y tone-2 “daah” out there, combined with the quick downward-stroke tone-3 “cho”…. So I don’t say something like – oh, I don’t know – “the slippery submarine has landed”, instead of “wrong number”.)

CALLER: Daaah cho?

ME: Hai ah, daah cho !

[sound of phone hanging up]

Working from home, I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve experienced that exact same exasperating exchange over our home phone number, presumably from eager, monolingual Chinese telemarketers.

Just in the middle of drafting the perfect twist of phrase for a client’s latest press release or translating that crucial opinion piece, badly written in the first place in the original Italian, into a decipherable English…. fixated in concentration when……

Ring, ring

We got a landline at home in Hong Kong only to be able to receive lengthy incoming work calls, since we found out the incoming cell phone calls are charged.

Well hallelujiah, there is a God, or a Buddha or a Mohammed! Maybe even all three!!

Or at least there’s a way to get rid of some of these darned telemarketers.

HERE, my friends, is the sort of information that is absolute GOLD to a newcomer arriving to a new country: how to get on the Do-not-call Registers with the local national communications entity.

THIS should be on every cultural trainers’ list of critical information to impart when unsuspecting expats uproot their families and travel across the world to start new lives abroad.

The Do-not-call Registery!!

Here in Hong Kong, anyway, it’s pretty easy to register using an Interactive Voice Response system.

You just call the Do-not-call Register hotline 1835000 from the telephone number or fax number that you wish to register. The system will capture your number and prompt you to press a key to confirm the registration of the calling number. After the registration process, your number will be listed in the Do-not-call Register before the end of the day.

And voila! Easy peasy!

Now we’ll just have to see if this ends up actually increasing or decreasing these unwanted calls… jury’s still out.

For more information, you can check out this link:

https://www.dnc.gov.hk/en/pub_general/rd/pub_faq_en.html#q2_2

Curious, what’s the procedure in your country to get on the Do-Not-Call Register, and does it work?