About Greetings

[mangiami.livejournal.com]

I remember being told that Russians only say Здравствуй(те) or Привет to each other once in a day, otherwise it sounds strange. I assume that's true, but correct me if it's just a regional thing or I'm just wrong. So, say that you see someone a lot in passing, like when going to different classes at a university, how would you greet them again?

Also, what are some conversation starting alternatives to Как дела? (Do Russians use that phrase as often as Americans say "How are you?") How do Russians normally start casual conversations?

Comments

[lucky-lr.livejournal.com]

I think, that "привет" and "здравствуйте" are really "one-day" words.
(exception: if you said "goodbye" and then meet than person again (later) - then you can say "hello again" :)).

"как дела" similar to "привет". it usually used together (привет, как дела?), once in a day.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

>How do Russians normally start casual conversations?

Hmm, an interesting question. All I can think of is that we just start them :) And, definitely, not with a "how are you" thing :)

[mangiami.livejournal.com]

I didn't think about the breadth of that kind of question... If it had been posed to me about Americans, I would have just said, "we usually say How are you, how are things, what's up, comments about the weather, etc." So, I guess I expected kind of an answer like that.

I think it's cool that you "just start them." A lot of times, I like that better than preliminary smalltalk.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, it depends. The less we know the person we start a conversation with, the more "small talk" we actually need. The forms vary, though. I know a very funny guy who, when entering a room where he only knows one person of many, addresses this person with a brave "доложите обстановку!" (literally, "report the situation!",) which is the military and policemen analog to "how are you" :))

[red-kitti.livejournal.com]

that's pretty funny...:) Now I have to think of an excuse to use "доложите обстановку!"

[monarchistka.livejournal.com]

"Как дела?" is used when we are interested in the other person's life vituation. :)
Or at least when we want to show we are interested. Such question isn't ritorical, it requires an answer - normaly a short one. But if you're sure the person who asks DOES want to know как у тебя дела, you can give a "full" answer with details.
*
More informal question is "Ну как ты?" or simply "Ну как?"
*
We don't though normally ask such questions to start a conversation.

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

>"Как дела?" is used when we are interested in the other person's life

that's great
here they ask it ALL THE TIME; I never do and I never reply or I say "is that a rhetorical question?" which gets me a lot of dirty looks; but I HATE that "how are you" question

t.

[vitafil.livejournal.com]

i hate this how r y too... especially - "Ну че, как сам?" - sheesh

[red-kitti.livejournal.com]

I did that once to an Estonian (in Finnish) and they replied with "What is it to you?"

[gailochka.livejournal.com]

I'd dare say in English (at least in American), "How are you" is not really a question, it's rather a "greeting statement", like ordinarly you hear "How are you" and reply "Fine", and noone bothers :)

Fist time in the States, I was a bit confused, people would 'ask' "How are you", and while it took me a couple of secs to contemplate how I am and what to answer (fine, good, fair, so-so, etc.), the person would have already passed. So then I learnt just to drop a quick "fine" because nobody really cares.

Agree, in Russian when you aks как дела, you might not imply 2 hours conversation about how the whole family is doing, but at least some info regarding how this person really is.

Btw, another "cultural difference", in Russia people rarely answer "fine" or even "good" to this question, usually say нормально (normal). When I answer "хорошо!" sometimes am being asked "What happened?" :)) implying that there should be something extraordinary if I'm better than just "normal".

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Being asked about such differences, I normally say to my American students: "if you ask a Russian how he or she is doing, be ready for a long detailed explanation how he or she actually is doing." :)

[gailochka.livejournal.com]

Yep! :))

[mangiami.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my teacher mentioned that Russian speakers normally only use "how are you?" as an actual question and intend to get an actual answer. I'm kind of strange because, even though I'm a native English speaker, I usually give at least a sentence of explanation on how I am unless I'm in a complete and utter hurry (I work at a restaurant, so sometimes that happens). My teacher also mentioned about how if you answer "хорошо!" that you'll be asked why you're so especially good. I sometimes answer "Ничего" to "Как дела," at least to my drill teacher, because saying that is kind of informal, right? Is нормально acceptable for more formal situations?

[gailochka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, right, I just forgot about "ничего", it's pretty usual answer, maybe even better than "нормально". I think in formal situations, if you're asked "Как ваши дела", would be polite to say "Спасибо, хорошо", or "Спасибо, все хорошо", or "Спасибо, все в порядке", something like that.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Me to. I usually just ask back: "
Do you want an honest answer?" or ignore it and just say Hi in responce.

I try to explain to some of my coworkers who want to know, why it's impolite to ask How are you? if you don't expect the person you ask to give you an honest and possibly lenghty answer.

About starting a conversation... привет or салют usually works. The second one can be considered a bit peculiar.

[snopova.livejournal.com]

I'd say that at work we usually greet each other with rather formal "Здравствуй, Лена!", and then we can ask each other "Ну как у тебя дела?", which assumes that I must start telling them about some recent events of my life whivh we usually discuss. "Привет" is informal, and only very close friends of mine can say that at work.

If I see the same person on the same day for the second time, there's the lack of words to say to each other, that's true. We can say, for example, "Уже домой?" or share some events or news of the day.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Or we can just nod to each other and that's all.

[mangiami.livejournal.com]

So true... :-) You've got to love wordless communication.

[nat-bton.livejournal.com]

At uni I would use Привет to all my mates/peers and Здравствуй(те) to lecturers and to people I don't know, which is more respectful.

[cyka-no-iq.livejournal.com]

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