Proper ways to say good bye in different cultures around the world ( Hanan )

I will start with the great USA: When telling someone good bye that’s about all you have to say. Bye, see you later, talk to you later, see you tomorrow, and the list goes on. Although there is a proper way of saying good bye to a person you just meet like it was nice meeting you, good seeing you hope to talk to you again soon, or my favorite its been real meeting you I’ll catch you later. As Americans we are just not to formal with hellos and good byes yet they are the key point of communication in our society.

I will only hit five other countries Great Britain, Russia, China, Japan, and Mexico

Great Britain: Things like god be with ye and cheerio are said with a good firm hand shake. Looking you right in the eye so that you get a feel of the other person.

Russia: Do svidanja yeah its hard to say but it is said at a distance but again looking each other in the eyes. Contact is not mandatory but placing a hand on the other persons shoulder is a sign of respect.

China: Joi gin, Joi wooi, Wa ki liao it all depends on the dialect that you are useing. Makeing a fist with the right hand and placing it in the palm on the left hand, never close it over. With a slight head bow never looking at the person you are saying goodbye to. To look is a way of showing your distrust.

Japan:Sayonara, Itte kimasu, Itte irasshai,ltte rasshai, Itte mairimasu, Dewa mata, Jaa, mata atashita, Jaa, mata ashita aimashou, Dewa sono uchi ni
Jaa nee, Jaa mata, Bai bai, Soreja, Soreja mata, Sainara, Hona sainara, Hona sainara, and Mata ai masho. For a island counrty there are alot of diffrent ways of saying goodbye. A goodbye should be accompanied by a bow with both hands open at your sides facing towards you.

Mexico (Spanish): Adios being the most common. When saying good bye its good to give a little bit of space but do not get uncomfortable if your space is invaded. The people of Mexico are very relaxed people and like there space but are very easy going. When you say good bye say it in a tone that says I will see you later.

Forms of Greeting by using the body language (Hanan)

Handshakes:

• United States and Canada: Firm handshake.
• France: Soft, quick handshake.
• Japan: Handshake with arm fully extended, accompanied by a bow.
• Germany: Firm handshake. Men traditionally accompany the handshake with a slight bow.
• Middle East: Handshake with the free hand placed on the forearm of the other person.
• 
  

Bowing: Many people from Asian cultures bow in greeting. In Japan, people bow with their hands at their sides, and the depth of the bow is related to the level of respect due to the other person. Thais bow with their palms together and fingers outstretched, while people from Cambodia and Laos bow with their hands in front of their chests. Pakistanis use the salaam, and bow with the palm of the right hand on their foreheads.

Hugging and Kissing: Native Hawaiians hug and exchange breaths in a custom called "aha." Mexicans will usually hug upon greeting (the abrazo). Men in many parts of the world exchange kisses on the cheek, and places where this is a common practice include Cuba, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

For the Maori of New Zealand, a traditional greeting includes the pressing together the noses (the hongi), and a cry of welcome (the karanga).

Other Body Language

Eye Contact: In Western cultures, people make intermittent eye contact while speaking to demonstrate interest and trustworthiness. People in the Middle East use very intense and prolonged eye contact to gauge someone else's intentions, and will move in very close to see the other person's eyes better. However, in Japan direct eye contact is interpreted as an invasion of a person's privacy and an act of rudeness.

insults, for example. You know, forms of communication that say, “in your face, jerk!” Aussies (citizens of Australia) often extend the thumb as if to say yes (our meaning, not theirs – as in thumbs up from Roger Ebert), except as if to mean to say “you idiot!” Meanwhile, in North America, we give offensive people the middle finger because it looks like a certain male body part when formed with our hands. Other cultures ma insult people with the finger-thumb zero sign (which we see as “A-OK” here), a v-shape formed with the first two fingers after the thumb (we call that the “victory sign”) or the index finger and the small little finger all the way back from the thumb.

Another common gesture people can mix up in different countries is the “he is acting like he is crazy” motion. In North America, we point to our heads and swirl our fingers clockwise to indicate such inferior unintelligent behavior. If you do that in Japan, however, you make it look to locals as if you mean otherwise (as if he is thinking intelligently). However, reversing the motion DOES indicate to a man native to, say, Tokyo or Nagasaki, that he should correct his behavior to correct standards. The point is clear: different cultures call for different body language standards.

\Funny Facts and Trivia about different languages ( Muneera)

- There are about 40000 characters in Chinese language.

- The word Taxi is spelled the same in English, German, French, Swedish, Dutch and Portuguese languages .

- The `sixth sick sheik`s sixth sheep`s sick` is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

- There is no word for `weather` in the Hawaiian language, probably because the weather is so good most of the time.

- India has about 800 dialects and 15 major Languages.

- Hallelujah is Hebrew for `Praise the Lord`.

- The Balinese have no word in their languge for art or artist.

- In China there are more people who speaks English than in the U.S..

- In Indonesia they have over 300 different languages.

- Eskimos have more than twenty words to describe snow.

- Before the year 1000, the word `she` did not exist in the English language. The singular female reference was the word `heo`, which also was the plural of all genders. The word `she` appeared only in the 12th century, about 400 years after English began to take form. `She` probably derived from the Old English feminine `seo`, the Viking word for feminine reference.

- in China there are no difference between the word `Rice` and `food`.

- There are 160 words for camel in Arabic.

- Nigeria is home to about 400 languages.

- Jamaica is the largest English-speaking island in the Caribbean.

- There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.

- In Chinese the words for crisis and opportunity are the same.

- `I am.` is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

- In Australia a banana bender means that a person comes from Queensland.

- The longest one-syllable words in the English language are `strengths` and `screeched`.

- In Chinese language China is called Zhong Guo. Zhong Guo means Land of the Middle.

- The number 9 in Thai means progression.

- The sentence `the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog` uses every letter in the English language.

- In Japanese the word for `different` and `wrong` are the same.

- The most difficult language to learn is Basque, spoken in northwestern Spain and southwestern France.

- In Japanese language there is no single word for water. They say mizu for cold water and oyu for hot water.

- No word in the English language rhymes with `month`, `orange`, `silver` or `purple`.

- The ampersand & was once a letter of the English alphabet.

- India is also known as Hindustan or Bharat by natives.

- The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead".

- The word "karate" means "empty hand."

- "United Arab Emirates," a small country in the Middle East, is made up of alternating vowels and consonants. It is the longest name of a country whose letters do that.