8. Why was the Australian shop assistant sury by the person's response to the greeting: How are you today?” convince you that you are among exqu welkmannered people. You will, of cours immediately notice their habit of bowing, Everybody keeps bowing. Everybody keeps bowing to everybody else with a great deal of natural and inimitable grace. Bowing is neither less nor more silly than shaking hands or kissing the cheek, but itis quainter, more formal, more oriental; itis also infectious. After a few hours you start bowing yourself. But you bow too deeply or not deeply enough; you bow to the wrong person. at the wrong time, You'll discover that the 2 Japanese have a complicated hierarchy in bowing: who bows to whom, how deeply and for how + Jong. One American state had an early traffic law Which laid down that if two cars met at an intersection, neither was to move before the other had gone. Similarly, if two Japanese bow, neither is to straighten up before the other stands erect in front of him. A little complicated to us; they manage it without difficulty and even the smallest difference in rank, standing, age, social position will be subily reflected in that split second one person’s bow is shorter than the other’ Lesson 3 9. How do you greet people in your country? Iwas in a store where the clerk greeted me with a cheery: “Hi! How are you today?" Fooled, no doubt by jetlag, into thinking her enquiry was in earnest, I said: “Actually, Tm ‘exhausted, I've just flown in from New York.” The sales clerk, not expecting an answer, was speechless Greetings have become such an intrinsic part of our daily lives that they often no longer mean anything, In some places, however, the culture of address is taken very seriously. In parts of Africa, paying your compliments can take a long time. A friend of mine, stranded in Timbuktu without any gas, needed an hour to ask the local mayor about the health of his family before he could even i approach the issue of refueling his car. Health is also the key question in Ukraine and. Russia, where friends greet each other with zdoroven'ki buli, (Let's be healthy), or zdorova, ‘wishing the other person good health. This is often accompanied by handshaking and kisses on the cheek. It should come as no surprise that romantic French speakers gush enchanté, literally “I'm enchanted,” on being introduced—but then even the more sombre Hungarians offer the affectionate Kezét esokolom (I kiss your hands) when a man reets a woman. Some nationalities are more orientated toward religion in their approach, Protestant northern Germans greet according to the time of day, but their Catholic southern counterparts, and some Austrians, say Griiss Gott (greet God), On Mount ‘Athos in Greece the monks say "Greeting: Father.” No feminine greeting is necessary as ‘women are not allowed there. Italian speakers have a flair for diffident i salutations, They are surprisingly unromantic. They may say piacere (Delighted to meet you) or on special occasions onorato (1 am honored). ‘And English speakers have confused language students for years with How do you do?— “How do you do whaé” a Japanese friend of mine often asks herself But in my opinion it is Spanish that has the simplest and most effective way of offering greetings to each other: Hola, ¢cémo esta? (Hello, how are you?) “I'm fine, thanks” is a perfectly adequate response. i