In the morning, we say 您早(good morning)or 早!,after around 10:30 a.m., we say 您好(How are you?) until evening or night. We are not used to say 午安(good afternoon) or 晚安(good evening). So if you don’t remember all of the ways of say hello, just say 您好 all the time.
If you couldn’t even remember 您好,you might just nod to people with sweet smile in a friendly fashion, it works in Taiwan as well.
Besides, there are some special greeting ways between acquaintances.
If you are about to go out, and meet your neighbors in front of door, they might “ask” you a question, like “Are you going to go out?” if you dress up and seem ready to go somewhere….
Your answer could be “YES” only, it’s enough. Because people are not really interested in the place that you are going to visit, they just make this concern as a way of say hello.
The way of this kind of say hello like :
"Are you going to eat launch?"(你)要去吃飯啊?(at meal time)
"You just came back? " (你)剛回來啊?(if you looked like just came back from somewhere)
"Are you going to dump your garbage?" (你)要去倒垃圾啊?
(in the elevator, if you take the garbage bag… ). They don't care if you have sorted the trash already or not, they just say it in a casual way in stead of say hello.
So you don’t need to reply further details, and don’t be annoyed either, if you thought they offended your privacy. This is merely the way of say hello within acquaintances.
11 Dec 2009
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