Are you ready to schedule a doctor's appointment? Let's do it. Talking on the phone, and especially

doing some professional business on the phone, can be really intimidating. It can be intimidating

for you as an English learner, but it's also intimidating for me as a native English speaker.

I sometimes feel a little bit nervous on the phone. I'm not exactly sure what to say. Before

I talk on the phone, I need to take a deep breath, think about what I'm going to say.

Today I would like to give you that same type of preparation help. You're going to be watching

me book an eye doctor appointment for my husband, Dan. I call the eye doctor on the phone, and

we go through the process of booking an appointment for him.

I want to explain some of the expressions that we use, some of the questions that we

use. If you ever need to book an appointment on the phone for a doctor's office, or for

a hotel, or book anything on the phone, I hope this will give you some extra confidence

so that you can do it because, really, if you take a deep breath, you got it.

All right. Let's watch the conversation that I had on the phone with the eye doctor's secretary.

Then we're going to pause. I'm going to explain some important expressions to you that I think

would be helpful for your daily conversations. All right. Let's watch.

All right. I am going to be attempting to make an eye doctor appointment for my husband,

Dan. I already scheduled an appointment for myself. I wanted to share that with you, but

I forgot to record it. I can't go back now, so I'm going to also make an appointment for

my husband, Dan. I want you to listen carefully, hear what they have to say on the phone, the

questions they ask. I hope to help you along the way so that you can use these expressions

yourself. All right. Let's see what happens. Secretary:

Triangle Visions of Asheville. This is Emma. How can I help you?

Vanessa: Hi. I was calling to make an eye doctor appointment.

Secretary: All right. Have you been seen by us before?

Vanessa: All right. We're off to a fast start, huh?

The first question that she asked me is, "Have you been seen by us before?" Now this isn't

a little joke because they're an eye doctor, and she asks, "Have you been seen by us?"

No. This is just a common question that means, are you a current patient at this doctor's

office? It's not because they're a vision doctor, an eye doctor. This means, are you

a current patient? Have you been seen by us? Let's take a look at another sample sentence

where you can use this sentence construction. If the secretary on the phone asks you, "Are

you a current patient?" You could say, "No, I haven't been seen by you before." That doesn't

mean they have not looked at you. They have not seen you. No, it just means that you're

not a current patient. Or if you are a current patient, and they say, "Oh, are you a new

patient?" you could say, "No, I've been seen by you before, but it's been a long time."

All right. Let's watch that clip one more time. Listen for the question, have you been

seen by us before? Then we're going to continue, and you can watch the next part. Let's watch.

Secretary: Triangle Visions of Asheville. This is Emma.

How can I help you? Vanessa:

Hi. I was calling to make an eye doctor appointment. Secretary:

All right. Have you been seen by us before? Vanessa:

I have not. I'm actually calling to make an appointment for my husband. I have a scheduled

appointment for myself, but I wanted to make a second one for him.

Secretary: Okay. Got you. Let's see. Yes, it's just a

little tricky with spouses. Is he available? Because, unfortunately, because he is a legal

adult, he would either need to authorize you to make the appointment, or he would need

to make it himself. Vanessa:

Oh okay. Would authorization mean he just needs to hop on the phone and say yes? All

right. We had a little difficulty here because I'm making the appointment for my husband.

Usually, this is not a problem when it's a haircut appointment or something that's a

little less formal, but with doctor's offices, it might be a little more serious because

there are some regulations they have to comply with. Not everyone has access to your medical

data. This secretary is thinking that maybe this includes booking appointments.

I wanted to ask, what does authorization mean? Sometimes this just means that the other person

needs to send an email. Maybe you need to have an official document, or maybe they just

need to say, "Hey, yes, she can book the appointment for me, but I'm too busy to do it myself."

I used a wonderful phrasal verb, to hop on. I said, "Does he just need to hop on the phone

and say yes?" Maybe he can just say, "Yes, she can book an appointment." That's it.

I said, "Hop on," because this means something quick, some type of quick action. We use that

full expression, to hop on the phone, but we can also use it in other ways. You might

say, "To get to the park, you just have to hop on the bus." You can use it for transportation

like this, to hop on the bus, to hop on the train, to hop on a plane, even, if you're

making a quick decision to just hop on a plane. When I heard that there was trouble, I hopped

on a plane immediately. It's this type of quick, easy action.

All right. Let's watch that clip one more time. Then we'll continue with the conversation.

I'm actually calling to make an appointment for my husband. I have a scheduled appointment

for myself, but I wanted to make a second one for him.

Secretary: Okay. Got you. Let's see. Yes, it's just a

little tricky with spouses. Is he available? Because, unfortunately, because he is a legal

adult, he would either need to authorize you to make the appointment or he would need to

make it himself. Vanessa:

Oh okay. Would authorization mean he just needs to hop on the phone and say yes?

Secretary: Pretty much, yes. Well, because I don't have

him in my system... Actually, let me ask real quick, if you don't mind.

Vanessa: Let's talk about two points in this quick

clip. She said, "Let me ask real quick." Just to let you know, the correct grammar is really

quick, but in daily English conversation, sometimes we just say real quick. We use real

with something else like, oh, it's a real beautiful day today. It's a real beautiful...

It should be, it's a really beautiful day, but you will hear English speakers use real

instead of really, even though it's grammatically incorrect.

Personally, I don't recommend that you use this, but if you hear it, you'll know what's

happening, and you'll understand. It's just kind of a really casual type of conversational

language. Let's talk about that last sentence that she said, "If you don't mind." This is

simply a polite comment. I don't have a choice. It sounds like she's giving me a choice I

can ask or I don't need to ask, but really, she's not giving me a choice. She's just letting

me know, "Hey, I'll be right back." She could have said, "Just a moment. I'll be right back."

That's totally fine too. She said, "If you don't mind," and she's not waiting for an

answer. She just says, "If you don't mind." Then I say, "Okay," and then she goes and

asks for permission about this situation. This is a really nice, kind of, just filler

expression to be polite, "Hey, if you don't mind."

Let's watch that clip, and then we'll continue with the conversation where you will hear

a very important phone verb. Let's watch. I'm actually calling to make an appointment

for my husband. I have a scheduled appointment for myself, but I wanted to make a second

one for him. Secretary:

Okay. Got you. Let's see. It's just a little tricky with spouses. Is he available? Because,

unfortunately, because he is a legal adult, he would either need to authorize you to make

the appointment or he would need to make it himself.

Vanessa: Oh okay. Would authorization mean he just

needs to hop on the phone and say yes? Secretary:

Pretty much, yes. Well, because I don't have it in my system... Actually, let me ask real

quick, if you don't mind. If you'll just hold just a second.

Vanessa: Another quick sentence. She said, "If you'll

hold just a second." Am I holding something in my hands? No. She's asking just to wait.

This is a common phone verb. That means you are waiting on the phone. Let's take a look

at some common sentences using hold that you'll most likely hear on the phone in this type

of situation. Do you mind holding for a moment? I'm not

holding something in my hands. Instead, do you mind waiting for a moment. Because we

use hold on the phone, this is a more common verb. Do you mind holding for a moment? Do

you mind holding for a second. Or you might just hear the simple sentence, "Please hold."

I've gotten this often on the phone when a place is really busy. Let's say you're making

a restaurant reservation, and they're super busy. You call. They might just pick up the

phone and say the name of the restaurant and then, "Please hold," nothing else. They don't

wait for a reply. They just say, "Please hold." That means you got to wait because they're

really busy. If you would like to see about how to order

food on the phone in English, I made another one of these lessons where I ordered food

on the phone. Then I explained some expressions to you. You can watch that video up here.

A lot of you found that very useful, and I hope that you will too. You can use just,

please hold, very simple, straightforward, especially if you're extremely busy.

We can put this in a bigger phrase. Someone might say, or if you're a secretary, you might

say, "I'm going to put you on hold for a moment." This phrase, to put you on hold, is the same

idea. Please wait. Maybe they're going to push the hold button on the phone. That's

kind of what this means. All right. I'm going to put you on hold for just a moment. Ask

this question, and then I'll be back. I'm going to put you on hold for a moment. It

just lets the other person know that they haven't disappeared, but you're just going

to have to wait for a moment. Finally, a common one is, thank you for holding.

This is pretty self-explanatory. After the person comes back on the phone, then they

are going to thank you for waiting, thank you for holding. You will see this, or rather

hear this expression, in just a minute. Let's review that sentence. You'll hear it again,

and then we'll move on with the conversation. Listen for this great phrase, "Thank you for

holding." All right. Let's watch. Secretary:

If you'll just hold just a second. Vanessa:

I could have Dan make the appointment. He is just in the other room, but I wanted to

share it with you. We'll see what happens. This is a good test.

Secretary: Thank you for holding. I cleared that up with

them. Actually, we should be good. As long as we're just making an appointment, we should

be all right. Vanessa:

All right. Secretary:

All right. Okay. Yes, I never want to slack off on the HIPAA stuff, so I just wanted to

make sure. Vanessa:

No problem. In this section you heard, "We would be good. We should be all right." This

type of phrase, to be good, to be all right, or to be okay, just means everything's fine.

Everything's correct. We can even use this in a really casual situation that you'll probably

hear a lot in movies, TV shows. You can use it too. If you're just walking and someone

bumps you, they might say, "Oh sorry." What can you say to reply to them? They bumped

into you. You could say, "It's okay. No problem," or you can use this phrase and you could say,

"It's okay. You're good." "You're good," is a very casual way to say, I forgive you. Usually,

we use forgive for pretty serious things, but it's a casual way to say that. Oh, no

worries. You're good. This means I'm fine. I'm not hurt. Forget about it. It's totally

fine. Oh, you're good. This is a really casual way to say this. You

could also interchange, "Oh, you're all right. You're okay," but I think, "You're good,"

is probably more common in this bumping situation. "Oh, you're good." You'll hear this a lot.

There's another great phrasal verb that I'd like to share with you, and it is to slack

off. I love this one. This means that you are not careful about something. It's not

about danger. It usually means laziness or forgetfulness. We use this often in school

situations. You might say, "Yes. I got a perfect score

on my first test in English class, so I thought I'm great at English. I don't need to study.

I slacked off. The next test, I failed." This means I was lazy. I was not attentive. I was

not careful about studying because I thought everything's fine. It's fine. No problem.

I can slack off, and I'll still get a good grade, but really, I shouldn't have slacked

off. We can sometimes just give a warning. Don't slack off. Don't slack off. You need

to stop slacking off and get to work. On the phone, the secretary was saying, "I

don't want to slack off on HIPAA stuff." What is HIPAA? Let me tell you. HIPAA... That stands

for, I looked it up, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Basically, this is

medical privacy, that if your neighbor calls your doctor's office, they can't say, "Hey,

can you tell me the medical records for my neighbor?" No, this is private information.

This law, this act is basically protecting you.

Whenever you go to a doctor's office, when you make an appointment, or when you fill

out some forms, there will hopefully be a HIPAA form. The secretary will probably tell

you this, "All right. Fill out these forms with your medical history and sign this HIPAA

form." It says, "I agree to have my medical information be private." That's the general

idea, I think. It's saying, I agree that this should be private.

If there is a situation where you want someone else to have access to your medical information,

maybe your husband, or wife, or mother, or something like this, then there's often a

section where you can write, this person also can have access to my data. If your husband