Briefing
You have been called to interpet for a Mandarin-Speaking Man (MSM) who is having a conversation with an English-speaking Customer Service Representative (CSR). He has called to dispute a bill he has received from an electricity company.
Listen to Dialogue
Mandarin English Dialogue #38 – Utilities Bill Dispute
Transcript and reference translation
CSR: Hi, thank you for holding. Please note that our conversation today may be recorded for quality assurance purposes. Can I start by getting your customer account number? (你好,谢谢您的等待。请您注意,出于质量保证的目的,今天我们的谈话可能被录音。您可以告诉我们您的账户号码是多少吗?)
MSM: 什么号码?喔,你是说在我的帐单上面的那个号码吗?让我看看。是4618592X 。(What number? Oh, you mean the one at the top of my account? Let me see. It’s 4618592X.)
CSR: Thank you Mr Wu. So how can I help you today? (谢谢您,吴先生。今天您需要什么帮助呢?)
MSM:我今天收到了上个季度的电费单邮件。但是我觉得这个收费太高了。(I got my electricity bill for the last quarter in the post today. But I think I’ve been overcharged.)
CSR: I’m sorry to hear that. Why do you think we charged you too much? (很抱歉听到这些。为什么您觉得我们对您收取过高的费用呢?)
MSM:这次的电费比上个季度的要贵三倍呢。(The bill is three times higher than last quarter.)
CSR: Let me ask you a few questions and then I’ll see what I can do. First I’d like to say thank you for bringing this to our attention. Now, how much do you usually pay for your electricity? (我先问问您几个问题,然后我看看我能为您做什么。首先,感谢您将这个问题告诉我们。您通常的电费是多少呢?)
MSM:我们通常是一个月80澳元,因为我有优惠卡,所以后来减免到60澳元。(We’re usually charged around $80 a month, which is then reduced to $60 as I have a concession card.)
CSR: Thank you. And how much did we charge on this bill? (谢谢。我们这次向您收取的费用是多少呢?)
MSM: 140澳元。我不明白这是为什么。我们最近安装了一个新的热水器,所以我们的电费应该更少了才对。($140. I can’t understand why. We recently installed a new water heater, so our usage should actually be going down.)
CSR: I’m sorry, we seem to have made a mistake. I’m going to contact a company representative to go out and check your metre. Could you please confirm your property’s address? (很抱歉,我们可能弄错了。我现在就联系公司代表让他检查您的电表。您能和我确认您的地址吗?)
MSM:史密斯顿区,皮特街300号,5单元。(Unit 5, 300 Peter St, Smithtown.)
CSR: I’m terribly sorry about the misunderstanding. We’ll do our best to rectify this as soon as possible. (对我们的失误我感到万分抱歉。我们将尽全力尽快解决这个问题。)
MSM:谢谢你的帮助。我知道肯定是有什么地方弄错了。那那个人大概什么时候来我家呢?(Thank you for your help. I knew there must have been some kind of mistake. So when will that person be coming to my house?)
CSR: I’ll have to get back to you on that. We should be able to get someone down there by Thursday, Friday the latest. Will someone be at the property during the day? (这件事我必须晚点跟你回话。我们周四应该你能派出一个人,最晚是周五。白天时家里有人吗?)
MSM:没问题。我白天上班,但我老婆应该在家。那我们就等你的回电。(No problem. I work during the day, but my wife should be home. Well I guess we’ll just wait for you to phone us back.)
Hi Carl, I’m looking for practices for the NAATI Mandarin interpretation exams, and was wondering if these dialogues provided are roughly what to expect in the NAATI exams? Just wanted a rough benchmark of what to expect for the paraprofessional and professional interpreter exams would be like (I have not received my sample exams yet).
Apologies if you have answered similar questions elsewhere, I can’t seem to find it.
Thank you!
The dialogues on my blog are harder than the NAATI paraprofessional test, and easier than the professional level test. Hope that helps, and good luck.
Hi Carl, would you say that Medium level for your dialogues be about the level for a paraprofessional interpreter test? Or would low level suit more? Thanks so much!
Paraprofessional would be more like low.
Strong Fuzhou accent XD
Thank you very much for sharing these resources.
Hi Carl,
These materials are for the NATTI, or NATTI CCL applicants also can use for the practice?
Thanks.
These are materials for anyone to practice. They have not been designed to the specifications of any test.
Thank you, Carl. Your materials have been really helpful!