So last night Tiff Tiff and I were talking (she was dictating from about 3 inches away from me and I was typing for her... I still don't know why...haha) and she started asking about weird things our culture does. Like...why do we have to say goodbye like 4 times on the phone? Why can't "Seeya" be enough on the phone, like it is in person? But if you say "seeya" on the phone, the other person still goes "have a good night" and you say "you too" and the other person says "goodbye" and you still feel obligated to say "bye." Why is this? It's really weird. Whereas in person, you can say "seeya" to someone, and then walk in different directions, not worrying about not having literally said "bye."
So that got me thinking abot other funny things... When did "how are you" become a greeting? usually you say "hey how are you?" as one entire greeting, and it doesn't matter if the other person answers your question or not, because it's more of a statement! Silly things.
Something else that always confuses me... if I'm walking with a friend and I meet up with another friend, do I introduce them? Chances are they'll never see each other again, and when I see the other friend at this point, it's more of a "hey how are you" (see?!) meeting, rather than a "let's all go do something" type of thing. So should I introduce the two friends? Or just talk to the one I found, and then keep walking with the one I was with originally? If I do introduce them, they'll probably forget each other anyway... yeah, that's a weird situation. Because when people introduce me in passing to other people, and I see those people again later, I never know if I should say hi or not.
That's another thing. Why do we either avoid or feel obligated to say hello to people we barely know? If you see someone you've met once on campus, are you going to go strike up a conversation with them? Probably not. You'll probably do the awkward eye-contact-then-look-away move. That's a famous one at BYU! Then there's the random people who say hi to everyone who passes them (which I don't mind, don't get me wrong), and then the people they pass are left in bewilderment, trying to figure out how they know each other. Wen in fact they don't.
How can you be "dating" someone, but not "going out" with someone? How can you be "dating" if you are thousands of miles apart and never see each other? Why do people do a double take when you say anything other than "good" when people ask how you are doing? Why is it socially acceptable to talk to some people on facebook, but you'd never talk to them in person? Finally, I also think it's funny how Mormon weddings rarely happen more than a year after the people meet, and more often less than 6 months after they meet, while the rest of the world takes a lot longer to wed...like years sometimes. Haha!
And on to the English language... why do you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway? Why is zero plural, when I learned the definition of "plural" to be "more than one"? What I mean by this is if I have nothing, I'll say "I have zero items," while I'll still only say "I have one item, I have two items, etc." And yet zero is less than one.... Hmm.
yup, on to homework now. Actually that's a lie. I'm going to make banana bread, THEN do homework!
So that got me thinking abot other funny things... When did "how are you" become a greeting? usually you say "hey how are you?" as one entire greeting, and it doesn't matter if the other person answers your question or not, because it's more of a statement! Silly things.
Something else that always confuses me... if I'm walking with a friend and I meet up with another friend, do I introduce them? Chances are they'll never see each other again, and when I see the other friend at this point, it's more of a "hey how are you" (see?!) meeting, rather than a "let's all go do something" type of thing. So should I introduce the two friends? Or just talk to the one I found, and then keep walking with the one I was with originally? If I do introduce them, they'll probably forget each other anyway... yeah, that's a weird situation. Because when people introduce me in passing to other people, and I see those people again later, I never know if I should say hi or not.
That's another thing. Why do we either avoid or feel obligated to say hello to people we barely know? If you see someone you've met once on campus, are you going to go strike up a conversation with them? Probably not. You'll probably do the awkward eye-contact-then-look-away move. That's a famous one at BYU! Then there's the random people who say hi to everyone who passes them (which I don't mind, don't get me wrong), and then the people they pass are left in bewilderment, trying to figure out how they know each other. Wen in fact they don't.
How can you be "dating" someone, but not "going out" with someone? How can you be "dating" if you are thousands of miles apart and never see each other? Why do people do a double take when you say anything other than "good" when people ask how you are doing? Why is it socially acceptable to talk to some people on facebook, but you'd never talk to them in person? Finally, I also think it's funny how Mormon weddings rarely happen more than a year after the people meet, and more often less than 6 months after they meet, while the rest of the world takes a lot longer to wed...like years sometimes. Haha!
And on to the English language... why do you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway? Why is zero plural, when I learned the definition of "plural" to be "more than one"? What I mean by this is if I have nothing, I'll say "I have zero items," while I'll still only say "I have one item, I have two items, etc." And yet zero is less than one.... Hmm.
yup, on to homework now. Actually that's a lie. I'm going to make banana bread, THEN do homework!
You raise some good points, but other languages have similar things. Like in German... at least when I was growing up, you said Auf wiedersehen for goodbye. Auf wiedersehen literally means "until we see [each other] again." What if you're saying it to someone you just met and never plan to see again! Of course, now they use a bunch of other ways of saying goodbye. And Spanish, "you're welcome" is "de nada" which literally means it's nothing.
ReplyDeleteHaha! And English spelling... you didn't even get into that one! Wow, all these extra letters in words that aren't even pronounced. Crazy!
Great post again. I love it.