Learning Chinese Online - How to use Chinese greeting

China is steeped in history, culture and mystery. Are you interested in Chinese language? Are you curious about Chinese culture? Learn Mandarin Online is your best choice .When English-speaking persons meet each other, they would say “Hello” and “how are you?” Then how do Chinese greet each other?

The ways of Chinese’ greeting each other vary greatly depending on different actual situations. But no matter what the situation is, they will say “你好 nǐ hǎo (hello) first. If it is in the morning, they may say “早上好 zǎo shànɡ hǎo (Good morning)”. If it is in the afternoon or evening, they may say “下午好 xià wǔ hǎo (Good afternoon)” or “晚上好 wǎn shànɡ hǎo (Good evening)”. This is normally the formal situation or when strangers meet strangers.

If friends meet friends, the way of greeting will be more complicated.
1. Person A hasn’t met person B for a very long time. If person A meets person B, person A will say “好久不见 hǎo jiǔ bù jiàn (long time no see)” and person B will reply with the same phrase.

2. Person A hasn’t seen person B for a very long time. When person A meets person B again, he/ she may ask “最近在忙什么？zuì jìn zài mánɡ shén me (what are you busy with recently?)”. Person B will answer with real situations.

3. Person A meets person B around breakfast time in the morning, person A will ask “吃早饭了吗？chī zǎo fàn le ma? (Have you eaten breakfast?)” Person B will answer with “吃了chī le (have eaten)” normally, even though he/ she may haven’t eaten yet. If person B says that he/ she hasn’t eaten yet, person B may be implying that he/ she wants to eat with person A or he/ she wants person A to buy him/ her breakfast. It is the same thing with lunch and dinner.

4. Person A and person B live at the same compound. Person A saw person B left his/ her home. Person A will say “上班啊？shànɡ bān a (go to work?)” if person B works and if it is in the morning or “出去啊？chū qù a (going out?)”. Person B will answer with real situation, like “今天不上班，出去走走。jīn tiān bù shànɡ bān, chū qù zǒu zǒu (I’m working today. I’m going out to take a walk)” etc. Person A may also ask questions like “are you going to school?” “are you going shopping?” etc, based on the real situations.

5. Person A meets person B in the street. Person A believes this is the working time for person B. Person A will ask “今天不上班？jīn tiān bù shànɡ bān (You are not working today?)” And it is ok to ask rhetorical questions in Chinese. Person B may say that I’m on vacation today or I’m working today but I’m going out to run some errands, etc.

6. Person A is taking a walk after dinner and meets person B. Person A may say “晚上真凉快啊！wǎn shànɡ zhēn liánɡ kuài a (it is nice and cool in the evening!)” etc to start a conversation. Person B may just agree with person A.

There are still many other ways of greeting. But in a word, all the questions are about the real situations. This is how Chinese greet with each other, no matter which of these you are or who you are, if you have a need to learn Chinese language and culture, you can Learn Chinese Online.
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