Hallo, Hier ist Maggie Berndt

Finally, I have something to do at work....after lunch. I was given more to read until then. I thought Germans were supposed to be efficient. Berlin is also known for being really laid back. So I guess this is them demonstrating that facet of their lifestyle.

I need to brush up on my German phone etiquette. We were having a meeting in my office (how cool does that sound?) when my phone rang. And, of course these are the days of caller ID, so the name and extention number of the caller appeared on the screen.

"I don't know this person," I'm pretty sure I actually said out loud to myself in English.
"Es ist Dessau. Es ist OK" Anja assured me, gesturing for me to pick it up.
And so I did.

I learned German phone etiquette, several times actually including last summer when we went over it quite a bit. But did I execute what I've learned? Of course not. In Germany, it's common procedure to answer the phone with your name, some people do just last and some do first and last. My host mom last summer always answered it: Klinkhammer (said in the same tone you or I would say hello [you know, kind of like a question]) and that was her last name. When I called Anja on Friday, she answered thusly: Hallo, Hier ist Anja whatever her last name is. I like that one. It sort combines the best of both worlds. Plus if I say just my last name people could get confused since Bernd(t) (with or without the 't') is a man's first name here.

So that's what I should have said. But, of course, I just said "Hallo." And then she of course said who she was (some lady from Dessau) and asked who I was. I just gave my first name (like she would have any idea who Maggie is) and she told me for whom she was calling (Frau something German sounding). I sounded confused, squinted at my phone list and didn't find anything that seemed to match. I think she could tell I was either new or American (probably both) so she graciously said something along the lines of "That's OK, thanks" and hung up to probably dial a different random extention where that person will actually just look up Frau something German sounding's extention in our system and help lady from Dessau out.

Now keep in mind, this was during a meeting in my office. So when I hung up, looking rather flustered, Anja was just sitting there laughing at me. She too, told me it was OK. So I guess it's OK. That's one way to learn.