本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛When was the last time you left a message on somebody’s phone?

I got a lengthy message on the phone yesterday from one of my friends. It suddenly made me realize how unusual it is for me to receive a message like this. Like most of my friends, who are mostly from China, I seldom leave messages on machines except for business. I usually see people on TV talking to a phone that is not answering. They talk so natural that it almost sounds like they are talking to the real person.

To me, unless it is really urgent or necessary, I would save my time of talking to a machine and wait until the person is available. I can not say it is one hundred percent related to culture. However, I know for a fact that an answering machine is not very popular in China, or I should say it is rare for personal use. With the popular use of cell phone in China, people would rather text, instead of talk. Text messages are so popular in China that composing certain kinds of text messages can be a promising career.

While texting sounds less invasive than leaving messages on the phone, people like me who lived in a different culture should be more open when thinking about talking to a machine. After all, answering machine is a very effective time saving and convenience tool: The person may not want to pick up but your important message can still be relayed.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net