Episode 49, Intermediate English -- Our thoughts on Gringo Greetings! Saludos que vas a escuchar en EEUU

[00:00:00] Welcome to the No Te Rindas Intermediate English podcast, home of the Tenaz Intermediate English app, disponible in no te Rindaspodcast.us This is a podcast for Spanish speakers who want to improve their comprehensive and native language of the US. I'm reading that is not found in English textbooks.

[00:00:55] Right, we assume that you know some standard greetings in English. Those are the sum of the first things that you learn in taking English classes. But we want to touch on some of the finer points and some of the cultural nuance or touches that you may encounter.

[00:01:15] And frankly, some expressions you don't hear often in more academic environments. But before we do that, let's get started with a short vocabulary list as we do sometimes. We're going to be giving some example conversations and you might hear some words that you do not know.

[00:01:35] So a word we're going to use in one of them is the word warehouse, a warehouse, a son al ma sen, a warehouse. We're going to talk about a resume, a resume, a son curriculum or un se ve.

[00:01:54] We're going to talk about pigeons, pigeons are a type of bird and pigeons are palomas or peachones. And then we're going to talk about a building, a building as soon edificio o un inueble.

[00:02:15] If you like to speak to our previous episodes, you can use Android or to download our app. Can us intermediate English gratis de gugg o play? We bring in the classes in our page, not during this podcast, but on the website, all the apps available at this moment.

[00:02:33] For example, today we have three videos, three groups of videos, which correspond to the 15 episodes of not going to intermediate English. If you want to practice English with us with a new idea, visit noterrindespodcast.org and click on the page to explain it. Gracias.

[00:03:19] Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, which you will often hear as morning afternoon or evening. We do tend to shorten things just like everywhere else, so good morning becomes morning.

[00:03:39] We might say morning instead of good morning to each other and then around here in the south, you're going to hear morning instead of good morning. Good morning of the three, good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Good morning is by far the most used.

[00:03:56] If you see someone before about 12 o clock noon, the first time you see them, you are very likely to either say good morning to them or for them to greet you with good morning or some variation like that.

[00:04:14] So good morning or morning or morning is used so much more than good afternoon and good evening and we'll get to that here in a second, but why don't we hear an example of how we might use good morning in the United States.

[00:04:33] Morning Carl, what are you into today? I got to move a bunch of boxes to the other side of the warehouse, you know. So here you heard that instead of me saying good morning Carl, I said morning Carl and he said morning back to me.

[00:04:58] So if we contrast good morning, which is used very frequently in pretty much any social setting with good afternoon, good afternoon is technically going to be used after the noon hour so after 12 to I don't know.

[00:05:16] 4 or 5 or 6 depending on who you ask, but after 5 or 6 probably not going to ever hear good afternoon that moves into good evening territory.

[00:05:29] But good afternoon, like good evening is going to be used mostly in formal settings. Americans just don't say good afternoon to each other in informal settings very often they're going to use a different greeting like what's going on or how are you what's up.

[00:05:54] So but good afternoon is I mean definitely used I use it at work, but primarily in a very formal meetings or if I'm first meeting someone that for example might be interviewing for a job so let's look into the example. Good afternoon.

[00:06:15] Thank you for coming to the interview today please have a seat in the lobby. Thank you do you need a copy of my resume.

[00:06:26] Oh no we already have a copy thank you so so again that was a formal situation a job interview type situation and in that when the employer or prospective employer might use good afternoon just because it's it's very formal but it sounds what we call a bit still to it sounds still to use it in everyday life because it sounds overly.

[00:06:52] Which is strange because we use when I started this fairly regularly in the Spanish speaking world and and it's not necessarily only going to be used in formal situations right. Yeah if I if I said good afternoon to my brother.

[00:07:10] Because I showed up to his house he might think something was wrong almost like well you want something or you're about to ask me a very strange question like good afternoon. May I have $100 or good afternoon.

[00:07:26] Would you please return my Saturday night fever album from the 1970s or you know whatever it is just like good afternoon if you say good evening.

[00:07:40] And if you say good evening to someone it's going to normally be in a more formal setting so we could look at an example of like maybe someone's at a fancy party. Yeah when I hear good evening and almost expect someone to have a jacket on.

[00:07:58] Maybe not a tie but it feels like a movie it sounds a little bit fancy. We should be in a dialogue we should explain the difference between good evening and good night because we're going to use both so in the United States.

[00:08:16] We only use good night for the last time we see someone in the evening or right before going to bed so good night is almost like saying goodbye instead of saying hello.

[00:08:32] Good evening or when us not just is really a greeting you're saying hello to someone it just happens to be evening time.

[00:08:41] Good night in the United States is not anything you would say when you first saw someone you would say say it only when you were about to either go to bed or leave for the evening. Good evening Stephen I'm glad you could come to our party.

[00:09:02] Well actually I was I was just leaving you know it's getting kind of late. In that case good night Stephen. Night Joe see you next week. So so again he was greeting this party guest with good evening and then the party guest let him know he was leaving.

[00:09:27] So in that case we said good night and of course that get shortened to night or in some informal cases especially with children night night which is the same as saying good night.

[00:09:44] But that sounds like little kids you probably won't say a night and night to anybody or hear it among adults.

[00:09:53] No no no don't say night night to each other but they do say night night Bob they do say night night so night strange thing but so hopefully that will be useful to you.

[00:10:10] All right we're going to move on from our our goods like good morning good afternoon and good evening and good night to to some house like how have you been. How you been how have you been come on come on up to study.

[00:10:33] You're asking about their condition for a period of time. You would not say how you been how have you been to someone that you saw just you know a few minutes ago or right before lunch or something like that.

[00:10:52] So we're going to set up a situation here where Tyler is from a different company and he doesn't visit my office very much so I see Tyler but not frequently in this case I haven't seen him in two weeks.

[00:11:15] And Tyler how you been born and good man have you been doing. Doing fine what brings you to our building today well I got 16 containers of that new tubing to deliver.

[00:11:33] So how have you been or very frequently how you been is is a way you can greet someone if you haven't seen them in a while and it's very commonly used here.

[00:11:45] Doesn't sound formal sounds friendly and we have some other examples of more informal or friendly ways that people will say things to you. When they're greeting you like how's it going or hey or high there or my favorite in the south howdy howdy.

[00:12:07] Howdy sounds mwip mwip o when a rural Casio, compassino. In formal. Yes, you're not going to say howdy to someone if you're interviewing them for a job or they're interviewing for a job with you.

[00:12:24] So one very, very common greeting in this group is the word hey people say hey just as frequently as they say hi. And in the south probably more often than they say hi.

[00:12:40] Hey yeah so if I see someone and I'm out and they and they wave at me. I'll probably say hey or I might say hey good morning just as a way to acknowledge them.

[00:12:56] So hey H.E.Y. can be used as an exclamation it can be used when you're angry like hey don't touch the ground.

[00:13:04] Don't touch my things or hey I'm over here but in this case it's used exactly like hi it's just it's just used as an informal greeting. So that and high can become high there.

[00:13:23] I hear that all the time high there or will high there if you walk into a room so again it's just another way of saying hello.

[00:13:34] Yeah this is this high there that he's talking about I love this because there's no there why why do we say they are high there.

[00:13:44] If you translate that it will trip you up it will it will slow you down as a communicator and make you feel less confident but it just means high high. Yeah yeah hey there you see hey you hear hey there to hey there.

[00:14:04] Well let's look at an example alright so I Greg I'm sitting in the park and I'm feeding the pigeons and Gabe walks up to me and asked to sit down. Hi there how's it going hey this seat taken. Oh no have a seat.

[00:14:32] So we're going to talk about some greetings that have the word what or what's in them and so just one little clue if you see someone and you hear them say a phrase with what or what's.

[00:14:48] You would just assume it's a greeting they're basically just saying hello or how are you. What's good what's happening. What's cracking. What's up and from episode two of our the very beginning of our show what what's going down.

[00:15:10] Now we think that this is probably a little abru-mundo right there's too many of these for you to. Keep in your head at the same time so Gabe's advice that if you hear what's that's a greeting.

[00:15:26] Anything after what it doesn't matter what it is if it's at the beginning of the conversation. That's a greeting so what's good what's cracking what's up and then of course we we need you to hear us say sub.

[00:15:43] Which sounds like we're saying the beginning of the word supper. But sub is short for what is up or what's up and so sub also has the word what at the beginning of it but it's not spoken it's moodle.

[00:16:01] So all very informal but all mean the same thing I would like to start talking to you. Right so there there are none of those phrases that you could not say hello or high back to and it wouldn't make sense.

[00:16:17] So if I say what's cracking you could say hi if I said what's happening you hello what's up. Hi how are you and all of those would would work so it's just obviously sub is harder because it doesn't have what's in it because the what's is silent.

[00:16:37] The what's silent yeah. All right let's look at an example in this situation Greg and I are friends and he knocks on my door. Hey Greg what's cracking. Nothing much what's up.

[00:16:57] You feel like going to auto zone with me I remembered you saying that you wanted to go and I need a case of motor oil. Oh yeah that'd be great let me get my jacket.

[00:17:10] So here I said hey Greg what's cracking and he said nothing much and then he asked me what's up. Nothing much what does that mean?

[00:17:26] Well nothing much it literally just means I'm not doing much of anything but it's a great answer to any of these questions what's up what's cracking what's happening what's going down.

[00:17:41] You can reply with nothing much and it's going to be appropriate answer it's a very, very common answer it's just a way that Americans are sort of moving the conversation forward to whatever's really happening. Got it got it so remember what's when you hear what's.

[00:18:04] It's just a greeting and everything will be fine. Yeah you don't have to worry what's specifically there they're asking or what they're specifically saying what's happening and what's up. Basically mean exactly the same thing even though they don't literally mean the same thing.

[00:18:26] So we asked ourselves what are some other things that might confuse someone who's learning English. So in the category of like cost us for rada we have a wonderful expression that makes almost no sense grammatically and you will hear it. And that expression is long time no see.

[00:18:51] Okay, it's come all I say mutual Tiempo que no nos vemos or cannot de veo. So long time no see is not a sentence right there's no there's no structure to that the way that other English sentences work.

[00:19:08] But someone will say when they haven't seen you in a while hey long time no see that that could be confusing. Right and it is used all the time long time no see is a far more common way to say I haven't seen you in a while.

[00:19:27] Then actually saying I've not seen you in some time yes I haven't seen you in a while when I'm very raro long time no see.

[00:19:35] Okay and then the other cosa rara is coming from Spanish because when I'm greeted or left despedito in Spanish people will say to me saludos saludos which translates in the dictionary as greetings.

[00:19:59] And we want you to hear us say that the word greetings sounds very antiquated or old fashioned or out of place in modern American English.

[00:20:10] If you say greetings it sounds to me like you're saying that you're an alien in a movie from the 1950s and you've come to visit my planet or something like that greetings earthling something like that.

[00:20:26] Yes greetings can sound somewhat robotic and not it's just not anything that people use anymore and you know and if they do.

[00:20:37] You know they're going to be considered strange you know like he's kind of a strange man and you notice that every time you see him he says greetings greetings yeah that sounds weird in English you might see it at the beginning of a letter or an email.

[00:20:54] That is appropriate but even then not really not really. Now just as a bonus it is important to realize that seasons greetings is something that you do see a lot in English and it is a secular or non religious way of saying happy holidays or merry Christmas.

[00:21:19] But no one says seasons greetings. Hi Gabe seasons greetings. No that sounds like no nobody says that we might say happy holidays if we're not comfortable saying merry Christmas or happy Christmas to each other.

[00:21:37] But but you will see greeting cards or billboards or signs that say seasons greetings and again it is just a very very what I would call antiseptic way of talking about the holidays. In other words, it's just one that has has no soul at all.

[00:22:01] But in either case you may see it. All right, it's time for our quiz. Case again on El Coco. What's sticky in your brain today? Hey Gabe, which one of these is more commonly used than the others in English? Good morning. Good afternoon or good evening.

[00:22:30] More commonly used than the others. Okay, so good afternoon and good evening. We said are used primarily in sort of formal situations or I guess they could be used in written emails or something but people say good morning all the time.

[00:22:49] So I'm going to say that good morning is use much more commonly than good afternoon or good evening. That is correct. Way to get us off on the right foot, bro. So Greg, when do Americans say good night to one another? Do they do it a?

[00:23:13] The first time they see each other in the evening or at night. B. The last time they see each other in the evening or at night. Or see they would use good night. Most any time Spanish speakers would say, when us notches. Hmm. Good night.

[00:23:40] So I know that you made a distinction between good evening and good night. They're not the same. Okay, good night is be the last time that people see each other in the evening or the night.

[00:23:58] The night the night time they would say good night to to leave to say goodbye. That's correct. That's correct. We don't use good night as a greeting. We use it as a dispet either. So that's that's exactly right. Good good work there. Way to pay attention. Thank you.

[00:24:17] Thank you. All right, and our last question. Which word used in a greeting? Well, tell the listener here comes a greeting. This is somebody's about to greet me. They're saying something to me that's a greeting and it's probably informal. It's an informal greeting. Is it the word who?

[00:24:41] Is it the word which? Or is it the word what? Hmm. I can't think of any greetings with who. You might say, who's hungry? I guess you could say that. But that would be a really strange greeting.

[00:25:04] That's usually something you would say when you were trying to get everyone to move towards time to eat. Get in the car to go. Yeah, for example. Who's hungry? Which? It's not who. It's not who. Yeah. Which doesn't work either. Which of you? Dented my car.

[00:25:24] That's not a very good wish. Which sandwich do you prefer? Yeah, that's not good. So it was what or what that we want to listen for and assume that that is just an informal way of saying hello. So it might be what's up or what's going on?

[00:25:41] What's going down? Yeah, what's going on? What's up? Sup. All right. Well, if you're still with us, we sure do want to thank you for listening today. We want to thank our patrons especially.

[00:25:54] If you want to become a patron of our show and help us make more episodes, please go to www.patrion.com For slash no taryneas podcast. You'll get a shout out in the next episode.

[00:26:08] A printable text of the examples given on the show and for our conversation episode, you receive a word for word transcript of the conversation that can be printed. We also want to shout out some of our frequent listeners by city today.

[00:26:24] Bernie Texas, we see you there week after week. Thank you so much for listening. We have a lot of new Mexican listeners this week to tell you about. Ké para nosotros es super pero super chido, including two cities in Baja California and both Via Hermosa and Wimangillo Tabasco.

[00:26:49] Tondé tenemos un montón de primos. But Gabe, I have a special announcement for you today. Your old stomping grounds, Kuehnavaka Morelos is also among our frequent listeners this week. Oh, that's so great.

[00:27:05] Okay, yes, I lived in Kuehnavaka for a short time when I was a young man, a teenager. And I remember swimming at Casino de la Selva. A lot of happy memories from Kuehnavaka.

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[00:27:38] And don't forget that our website is notariandespodcast.us, where you can find a link to all of our apps on the Google Play Store under the name Tenus. It's intermediate English because we want you to be Tenus in Notariandes. Okay, I understand the football playoff start tonight.

[00:28:01] I hope you get to watch a gamer too and I know how much you enjoy that. Yeah, I just found out that the thing I was committed to do this afternoon got canceled because it's too cold.

[00:28:13] So I'm going to get to watch some football and maybe eat some popcorn. So yeah, all right, we'll take care of you. All right, I love you, my brother. I'll talk to you soon and let's do it again.