Asian Greeting phrases

© Zak Keith, 2009

How to say hello to Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Thais, Vietnamese, Cambodians...
Greeting Asian clients who wander into your place of work?

QUESTION: How do you greet an Asian person? How do you say hello to an Asian person?

 

THE SHORT ANSWER:

If you want to be polite to Asians, just say hello like you would say hello to anyone else—in the language of the country you’re in! Greet Asian strangers in your own country in your own language.

 

THE TRUTHFUL ANSWER:

If you are face-to-face with perfect strangers in your own country, attempting to say hello to an Asian person in “their own language” is a bad idea. If you want to take the 99% risk of offending them, if you want to be patronizing, if you’re the ignorant type who believes all people who look Asian in the West must be foreigners, if you want to act like an assumptive who thinks language and culture are inseparable from ethnicity, if you’re so impressed with yourself that you can say one word in a foreign language, if you like to initiate dead-end “conversations,” or if you like operating on the level of a pimp or Amsterdam/PatPong tout trying to lure tourists into seeing a sex show, then by all means, go ahead. Otherwise, do not assume to know what someone’s language must be based on their looks.

 

THE ANSWER YOU MIGHT PREFER—(But still what NOTto say to a total stranger):

Mandarin Chinese: Nee-how

Japanese: Konichiwa

Korean: Ahn Neyong Ha Seyo

Thai: Sawadee-kahp (as spoken by male) Sawadee-ka (as spoken by female or effeminate male)

THE LONG ANSWER YOU MAY NOT WANT TO HEAR:

Shopkeepers, hotel staff and restaurant workers in tourist districts around the world seem to think it’s such a great idea to greet people in their own language. Hotel management schools and educators in the tourist and hospitality industry actually encourage this. But it may surprise you to know, although it shouldn’t in this day and age, that saying hello to perfect strangers in what you assume to be “their own language” can be a very bad idea. Apart from the fact that it is annoying, people generally hate being mistaken for someone of a different nationality. The fact is that longstanding animosities exist between nations and people tend to despise their closest neighbors. There are countless examples: a Chinese person will generally hate being mistaken for a Japanese and vice versa, just as a Greek person would not appreciate it if someone decided they ought to speak Turkish and started greeting them with Merhaba.

There is a time and place for everything: If you’re traveling abroad and meeting locals, you should of course learn to greet them in the local language. If you’re visiting an Asian person in their home and you know what their language is exactly, then by all means, go for it! If you are receiving a conference group comprising visitors from a specific Asian country, then do learn to greet them in their own tongue.

But it’s a whole different situation when you meet a perfect stranger—anyone you perceive to be a foreigner in your own country—that’s when you shouldn’t assume to know who they are (their nationality and/or language) just by looking at them. Do not try out your cheap phrases on total strangers!

Only assume. It’s one thing if you’ve already ascertained someone’s nationality or heard them speaking and recognize their language, but it is a bad idea to assume what a person’s language must be just by looking at them. It’s 2009—populations get displaced and people have been moving around for centuries! They can look one way and come from somewhere else. An Asian-looking person might be a fourth-generationer born in the West, and will find it extremely annoying that perfect strangers are constantly trying to impress them with phrases in Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Tagalog, etc., assuming that their language cannot possibly be English or German or French. They are victims of perpetual foreigner syndrome, regarded as inherently inassimilable no matter how many generations they’ve been living in the West. Trust me, they will not appreciate your “friendly” gesture!

Only know. There is a category worse than : those who are cock-sure about their infallibility on differentiating between Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Malaysian, Indonesian, etc. If you think you really can too, try this test at AllLookSame.com. I’ve been told I “must be Japanese” because of my beard and because the “Chinese don’t have beards,” that I am “absolutely 100% Thai” because of my complexion, that I am “surely a Filipino” because I’m a musician who speaks good English, that I “must have” Korean blood because I look exactly like some Korean person they know, etc. The truth is that even Asians themselves make mistakes and can’t always tell who is who. Genetically, there is five times more variation within races than there are differences between races. In other words, there is no way you can really tell when it comes down to it, especially since Chinese and Japanese technically belong to the same “race.”

REMEMBER: culture, ethnicity and nationality are separable things! In English-speaking USA, it’s as a rule best to greet Asian-looking people in English. In Germany, greet Asians in German. In France, greet Asians in French, etc. Do not make the mistake of (even subconsciously) seeing Asians as automatically foreign, or inassimilable, or non-citizens by virtue of their race; do not assume that English, German or French, etc. cannot be their own language. Do not assume you are doing them any favors to “feel more at home” if they heard their “own” language. All you will be doing is “othering” them, highlighting your simplemindedness, because all you are capable of seeing before you is a foreigner, simply because they have a different skin color.
© Zak Keith, 2009

Responses to this article:

• Broadening One’s Cultural Vocabulary, by I.K.

For further reading about faux-pas Asian Greetings:

• Top 10 Things You Should Never Say to an Asian Woman
• You ever had a stranger say to you, “Hey, are you Chinese? Kunichiwa!”
• Asian Moms: Do you get annoyed when strangers say Ni Hao to you?
• "Ching Chang Chong"
• Guys attempting to flirt/be cute in what they think is your language
• Is it now acceptable to say "ni hao" to anyone who looks vaguely chinese?
• I am not Korean or Japanese, really!
  

back to top