Business+telephoning

This space is for our ideas for teaching the skills and language needed for business telephoning.
Just a bit of fun this one. Some of you may have heard the story I occasionally tell of a Swiss one-to-one learner who wanted me to record a sound effects tape for him which he could play when on the phone. The idea was to have disruptive noises and mock-interference which he could use as an excuse to ring off, prepare what he wanted to say and call back. Clever if somewhat bizarre idea. Perhaps some of you thought I just made it up...

But now I see there's a whole website called Sorry Gotta Go Dotcom devoted to creating sound effects you can use to get people off the phone:

http://www.sorrygottago.com/indexBus2.htm

My favourite sections are At the Office and Where Are You? You can pretend someone's just come in, that there's static on the line, that your other phone is ringing, that you're at the airport, in a traffic jam.

Seems to me you could use these sound effects (which load really quickly) as drill prompts. The learner hears the sounds and matches them to a set of fixed expressions such as:

I'm still at the airport. I may be a bit late for the meeting. Oh, listen, someone's just stepped into the office. I'll have to go. Can I call you back? There's someone on the other line. The signal's breaking up. I'll call you back, OK?

Then they listen and respond - first using prompts; later spontaneously.

Anyway, a humorous lesson idea.

Sorry gotta go!

Mark