Comments on: Nǐ hǎo 你好: A Very Fake Greeting

By: JoyFytz

JoyFytz — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:36:12 +0000

I guess there are several ways you could understand this “ni hao” thing and also depending on the tones you express this greeting, it might give people different feelings about it:
1. In a polite way of greeting people;
2.could be a way of showing a sense of distance to someone that you don’t really like. (which in the case, you could say it is very fake).

I think there’s still a lot of people using it by adding some emotional phrases before it: “ei, ni hao”, “hai, ni hao”, “you, ni hao” or similar stuff

Most of the time, people use “hai”(=hi), “ha lou”(=hello), “zao”(=morning)

By: How useful are Ni Hao (你好) and Ni Hao Ma (你好吗)?

How useful are Ni Hao (你好) and Ni Hao Ma (你好吗)? — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:47:39 +0000

[...] calls nǐ hǎo (你好) “A Very Fake Greeting.” He shared an encounter he had with a teacher in China. “Nǐ hǎo 你好,” I said. He stopped [...]

By: On the Limits of Ni Hao | Sinosplice

On the Limits of Ni Hao | Sinosplice — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 01:25:20 +0000

[...] also left a comment recently reminding me of a great post on the blog Laowai Chinese called Nǐ hǎo 你好: A Very Fake Greeting. The post is actually more exploratory than condemning, and has quite a few interesting comments [...]

By: stuffedtuna

stuffedtuna — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:04:28 +0000

I’m not sure but I think this is just very reasonable, because the same case happens in my native language – Vietnamese. The word for saying “hello” in Vietnamese which all the foreigners are told is “xin chào”, and I met a lot of them who using that word. But in fact, that word only exists in theory, and non of Vietnamese people ever use it in real life. I really can’t tell where it came from.
So, anyone knows the same case in any other language?

By: Chinese are not used to say “Thank You” to buddies « On the way

Chinese are not used to say “Thank You” to buddies « On the way — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:29:12 +0000

[...] It seems not only “THANK YOU’, but also “Hello (Chinese Pin Yin: Nǐ hǎo)” would be considered a fake greetings. Please read Nǐ hǎo 你好: A Very Fake Greeting. [...]

By: Quora

Quora — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 07:53:08 +0000

Do native Chinese speakers really find Nǐ hǎo 你好 to be a fake or insincere greeting?…

I was reading the following article and found it interesting.There seems to be many Mandarin speakers on Quora and was wondering what their perspective was? http://laowaichinese.net/n%C7%90-h%C7%8Eo-%E4%BD%A0%E5%A5%BD-a-very-fake-greeting.htm...

By: clinky

clinky — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:20:30 +0000

我这里，朋友之间最常见的问候是直接称呼对方的名字，表示你的注意力正在对方身上。

By: klw

klw — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:03:51 +0000

is this probably related to in which part of China you are? I’ve been in Shenzhen studying chinese for one term now. One of my teacher said that 吃了吗， is an old term that is rarely used now. Or at least in the southern China, I guess.

By: AcidFlask

AcidFlask — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:53:22 +0000

To me 吃了嗎？ is something I hear a lot from older relatives. Most people I know use a casual hi 嗨.

By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:41:43 +0000

Actually 你吃了嗎？ isn’t that common nowadays either and I rarely hear it. Something like 你最近怎麼樣？ or 嗨 sounds a lot more contemporary IMO.