Greeting People

Greeting People

Hi!
Namaste
Assalam ale kum
Bonjour
Everyday we greet people. We greet our family members when we wake up
in the morning; we greet our friends and teachers at school; we greet people at
work; we greet people from whom we buy our bus or train ticket, a cup of
coffee or newspaper. If it is a friend’s or a loved one’s birthday we greet them
in a special way. If it’s a special day, a festival or celebration, we wish our
loved ones in a special way too.
Greetings are a vital part of any language. While learning a second language
one of the first things we learn is how to greet people.
Think about greeting different people on different occasions. How do you
normally greet people? Does the form of greeting change in different
situations? Is the greeting different when it is a stranger, or someone of a
different gender or an older person? Does the form of the greeting vary from
one part of the country to another?

Greetings acknowledge the existence of another human being. Greeting a
person means taking the time to relate to a person in a personal way.
Greetings may be conveyed through words, spoken or written and through
gestures. While a quick “Hello!” or “Hi!” conveys a casual spoken greeting;
shaking hands, embracing or hugging a person, kissing people on the cheeks
or joining one’s hand in a simple ‘namaste’ are some of the gestures people
across the world employ to greet people from different cultures.

While, the shaking of hands in U.S.A. is a fairly formal way to greet people
you meet for the first time, in India, you will find that men do not shake hands
with women, especially older women. Touching people’s feet, especially, an
older person’s, is a more favoured form of greeting, especially in rural India.

Wherever you are in the Arab world, greetings and leave takings are an
important part of any Arabic conversation. They tend to be more elaborate
than in the West. Even when addressing a stranger, it is customary to greet
him/her and take your leave using standard polite expressions.

It is normal when meeting someone socially for the first time, and when
meeting anyone you already know (even if you just bump into them in the
street), to follow the initial expression of greeting by asking after their health.