how are you? and good bye!
This time I would like to discuss about what I have felt about some expressions related with greetings.
When I was in the elementary school or even middle school, I learned an English expression for greetings. It was really simple.
A: “How are you?”
B: “Fine! Thank you! And you?”
A: “I am fine too!”
This was it. I cannot remember any other expressions I learned for greetings. Oh, the other thing I remember is “Good bye!” Now I have been here for a while, there are a few different expressions many people use. Let’s see!
When people meet: “What’s up?”, “How’s it going?”, “What’s new?”, “Anything special?”, “Yo!”, “How are you?”
When people part: “Take it easy!”, “Bye!”, “Take care!”, “See you!”, “Seeya!”
There must be more I guess. But the thing is it was kind of difficult to try using different expressions since I only learned one expression and it stayed in my brain for a long time. But I have a question here. So, suppose that I meet a client for the first time, is it ok for me to use “What’s up?” or “What’s new?” I guess not, right? If not, why? I know I cannot use “Hey! Yo!” in that situation 🙂 I think in that case I should use “How are you?” This kind of subtle differences are always hard to catch and grasp.
Hmm, I think some of the more casual greetings presuppose a degree of knowledge about the other person’s life and activities. If you say, ‘What’s new?’, that implies that you know what is old, so it’s not appropriate for a person that you don’t know or don’t know very well.
I find that I meet people most often in the mornings, so ‘Good morning, how are you?’ is my general first-meeting greeting 🙂
It’s interesting what you say about “what’s new”… one greeting I use frequently is “What’s goin’ on?” which is similar, but I use it with strangers on the street all the time. I guess sometimes I say “What’s happenin’?” also.
I also like to say good morning to people when it’s the morning time.
Other good ways to say goodbye are:
“Later!”
“Have a good one!”
“Anything special?”
It’s interesting that you put that one. I’ve only ever heard that from JC. I always assumed it was his shortened way of saying something like “Do you have anything special planned for this weekend?” Have you heard this greeting a lot since you moved here? Has anyone else heard that one before?
So Mark, do you think this is not really common? Hmm.. maybe this one is only for Korean American? Interesting.
I’ve used “Howdy” frequently, but only ever gotten the expected response from Marcel and a few other non-native English speakers.
A: “Howdy!” (“How do you do?”)
B: “Well, and you?”
Colin, isn’t “howdy?” used by people from South? I remember when I watched Toy Story. The cowboy character, Woody, used that expression all the time. I did not know that people from Northeast use that expression.
I think of “howdy” as sort of a country greeting, not so much used by urban socialites, but acceptable as a down-homey way to say hello.
Sometimes howdy is short for “howdy doody?”, which is somehow, I think, a shortening of “how are you doing?”
I’m a country boy… and howdy is pretty common.
Often answered with “aight”
When I moved to Texas, I had to re-learn greetings. If you greet someone with “How do you do?” they will actually answer, sometimes is detail — even strangers. They assume you ask because you are interested. If you are just greeting someone, you need to use something that doesn’t request an answer like “Hi” or “Hello”.
When I moved to Pittsburgh after Texas I had to re-learn to not answer rhetorical greeting questions like “How do you do?” — Otherwise people looked confused or uncomfortable.