If you have made a friend in another country or you are doing business with someone from another country, you may have to choose which communication method you use to contact them. Most people either speak with foreigners over the phone or text them. However, other methods of communication such as email are also prevalent. Each method has its advantages and its disadvantages.
Keep reading to learn more about the different communication methods you may use when speaking with someone from another country.
Phone Calls
It is popular to call people from other countries when you want to speak with them. This method allows you to make a deeper connection with someone than sending a text. Also, you can avoid misunderstandings that could arise when texting.
However, phone calls do have their disadvantages. For one, your foreign friend needs to be able to speak at the moment you call them. This could be difficult when you call Switzerland from US or you try to contact someone in another country in a very different time zone. Also, phone calls will likely be far more expensive than texts. Of course, you could avoid some of these expenses by using a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) system.
Texts
Texting is preferred by many people in the US to calling. It is especially popular among young people. It has several advantages over phone calls when communicating with someone from another country.
Perhaps the biggest advantage is that you do not have to rely on the recipient being able to talk when they receive the text. This is very convenient when contacting someone who lives in a radically different time zone, as you may not be sure what time it is in their country.
Also, texts are far cheaper to send to an international recipient than calls. This is because texts use far less bandwidth than calls. However, sending texts through a traditional mobile phone service may still be more expensive than VoIP calling.
Other Methods of Communicating
While calling and texting are the best methods of international communication in most situations, email is also popular. Email works best when you need to contact someone in writing, but a text would be too short. Emails are also better than texts if you need to attach files. Attaching large files to texts could result in extra charges and long loading times.
