With the growing popularity and accessibility of international tourism, many have a reason to start learning foreign languages. The very first thing any conversation starts with is a greeting. Native speech in an unfamiliar country draws attention to itself and sets you up for conversation.
Indo-European languages
This language group includes almost all European languages and some languages of the countries of the Middle East.
1. The French greeting "bonjour" will be understandable in addition to France, Belgium and Switzerland in countries such as Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, as well as in some African countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Guinea, Gabon and Mauritania …
2. Spanish "ola": in addition to Spain itself, Spanish or Castilian, as it is sometimes called, is spoken in the countries of Central and South America, except for Brazil. It is also the second most spoken language in the United States. It is spoken by over 34 million Hispanics.
3. Italians greet each other with the word "ciao".
4. German is the official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and parts of Italy. In these countries, one can hear the greetings "halo" ("hello") and "guten tag" ("good afternoon").
5. "Namaste" - this is how the greeting sounds in Hindi. This language is spoken in the north of India and in Nepal.
6. "Salam" - this is how the inhabitants of Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, some regions of Uzbekistan and Bahrain greet them, where they speak Persian, which is sometimes called Farsi.
7. The Greeks say "yasas" ("hello"), "yasu" ("hello") or simply "me" ("hello").
8. In Yiddish (Hebrew), you can say hello like this: "Sholem Aleichem" (literal translation - "Peace be with you"), "gut morgn / tog / ovnt" ("good morning / afternoon / evening").
9. The following greetings are accepted in the Latvian language (Latvia): "labden", "sveiki", "chow" (informal greeting).
10. In Lithuania, they say “laba dena” in a formal setting, “labas” or “sveikas” (referring to a man), “sveika” (referring to a woman) and “sveiki” (referring to a group of people).
11. Ukrainians say "hello" or "pryvit".
12. In Belarusian one can say “good morning / day / evening”.
13. The Danes greet their friends with the words “high” or “high”. The more official version is “year of dag” (“good afternoon”).
14. In Romania, you can greet a person like this: "buna ziua" or "salute".
15. In Armenia, it is customary to say "barev" when meeting.
Kartvelian languages
The Kartvelian languages are a group of languages common in the Western Caucasus. The most famous representatives of this group is the Georgian language. When Georgians greet someone, they say "gamarjoba".
Ural-Altai languages
1. In Japan they say "Okhayo / Konnichiva / Konbanwa" which means "good morning / afternoon / evening".
2. In both North and South Korea, the greeting is “annyeon-haseyo”.
3. Mongolians greet like this: "bina uu".
4. Almost 7 million out of 10 million Kazakhs live in Kazakhstan. The remaining 3 million settled in the Chinese province of Xinxiang, Uzbekistan, Russia, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Tajikistan. Kazakhs pronounce "salametsiz be" when greeting a person. The literal translation of this expression: "how are you?"
5. In Hungarian, the greeting sounds like this: "servus" or "sia".
6. In Estonia, you can greet a person with the words “tere peevast”, which means “good afternoon”.
7. Finns say “hyuva paivaa” (“good afternoon” or “hello”) or simply “my” (“hello”).
8. In Turkey, when greeting a person, they say “merhaba / meraba”, “salam” (“hello”, “hello”) or “gunnaidin” (“good afternoon”).
Afrasian languages
This language group includes the languages of the peoples of North Africa and the Berber languages spoken by the nomads living in the Sahara desert. Representatives of the Arab world, greeting a person, pronounce "Maraba". In different dialects, this can sound like "merhaba" or "meraba". Arabic is common in northern Africa and the Middle East. It is the main official language of the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen.
Sino-Tibetan languages
1. "No how" - this is the greeting in Mandarin. It is considered the most spoken language in the world due to the number of Chinese people. It is spoken by at least 50% of China's population.
2. Cantonese is spoken in South China, Hong Kong and Macau. The greeting "nii hou", like "ni hau" in Mandarin means: "you are good."
Austronesian languages
1. In Malay, “good morning / good afternoon / good evening” sounds like “slamat pagi / tengahari / petang”.
2. On the island of Hawaii, tourists are greeted with the word "aloha".
3. Tagalog is spoken in the Philippines. Say "kamusta" to say hello.
