Tuesday, 31 March 2009

The Art of Listening

"A disaster was coming near. I almost asked Faussone how he could have committed such a serious oversight, but I restrained myself, to keep from spoiling his story. In fact, just as there is an art of story-telling, strictly codified through a thousand trials and errors, so there is also an art of listening, equally ancient and noble, but as far as I know, it has never been given any norm."

Not in Hong Kong, anyway – the only place where they don't wait to hear your telephone number first before repeating it back to you.

5 comments:

Dave said...

That's called simultaneous translation!~

fumier said...

And the only place where they ask who's calling before putting your through then ask for your name again once they decide to tell you what they knew to start with, namely that the person is not in the office.

ulaca said...

Um, that may not be the only explanation, fumie.

Try using a different name.

Troika said...

Ha ha

fumier said...

I did, Ulie!