📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you answered a phone call from someone you didn't know in a public place

This episode's vocabulary

Recurring (adj.) - happening many times, or happening again.

Nuisance (noun) - something or someone that annoys you or causes trouble for you.

To pester (verb) - to behave in an annoying manner towards someone by doing or asking for something repeatedly.

Urgent (adj.) - very important and needing immediate attention.

To confess (verb) - admit that one has committed a crime or done something wrong.

To interrupt (verb) - stop the continuous progress of (an activity or process).

To bother (verb) - to make the effort to do something.

To badger (verb) - to persuade someone by telling them repeatedly to do something, or to question someone repeatedly.

Questions and Answers

R: To be honest, this is a recurring problem I have where I keep getting nuisance calls from the marketing department of my internet service provider. They keep pestering me to make sure I'm getting the best deal for my internet connection. And since I pay so little for it, I clearly am. So I have no idea why they keep asking me. I also make sure to tell them that every time, and I'm not interested in such calls. But nevertheless, it just keeps on happening. On one particular occasion, I was having lunch with one of my friends in a cafe, and they called, and I always answer voice calls in case it's urgent, so I had to stop talking and take the call. And then I got the usual, hello, it's Craig calling from your internet service provider. We're just checking. Blah, blah, blah. And the person always seems to be called Craig for some reason. So you would think that he would have gotten the message by now. But regardless, there I was talking to what must have been the same person, or at least what seemed like the same person. I have to confess, I wasn't polite about it, since this was about the 50th time they'd called, and I explained it rather directly that I had spoken to the same department so many times and I wasn't interested, and now they were actually interrupting me while I was with a friend. And while I know, and, well, I knew at the time, and I know now that it's not that person's fault. I did stress that I didn't want to be bothered again, or I would be making a complaint directly. And then I hung up and got back to talking. When it comes to my feelings about the whole thing, well, I wasn't too put out by it, I was a bit annoyed at having to repeat myself. I doubt anyone likes having to do that. However, I did get at least a little bit of satisfaction after the fact, because I don't think they've bothered me again since now, I'd think about it. And maybe if I hadn't done that in that way, or at least if I hadn't done it in the way that I had, maybe they'd still be badgering me to this day.

M: And what about your friends? Do they get the same calls?

R: I couldn't tell you. I don't know if they have the same service providers as I do.