{"id":4892,"date":"2013-05-16T10:38:33","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T09:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=4892"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:40:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:40:37","slug":"everyday-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2013\/05\/16\/everyday-rhetoric\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although I am essentially a monoglot, I am interested in languages, which I have written about before<\/a>. As I travel to countries where English is not the first choice, I do try to master just a little of the language. My starter is 6 words and one phrase: “Yes”, “No”, “Please”, “Thank you”, “Hello”, “Goodbye” and “Please may I have a beer.”<\/p>\n

The basic greetings are clearly the place to start, but I often find them confusing in English …<\/p>\n

In many languages there is a formal greeting, like “Buongiorno!” in Italian. But there is often a simpler, more flexible, informal option like “Ciao!”, which can be used at almost any time. Similarly in Swedish they have “Hej!”, which may even be repeated – “Hej hej!” – with similar flexibility. German is a more formal language, so one might say “Guten Morgen”, but this might be abbreviated to “Morgen”, which I always think has a friendly ring to it. In certain areas they commonly say “Gr\u00fc\u00df Gott” – from which Google Translate gives us “Howdy God”, which made me smile.<\/p>\n

This brings us on to English greetings. On arrival, we can say “Hello”, “Hi”, “Hey” or even “Howdy”. But we are just as likely to pose a question: “How are you?” or “How are you doing?”. These questions are rhetorical – they do not require a proper answer. Although I am often tempted to respond with one, as the practice of enquiring about someone’s health and not being prepared to listen to an answer seems silly to me.<\/p>\n

The questions are becoming more obtuse. A common greeting is “What’s happening (man)?” I am mystified. Do they want to know about events right here and now? Are they enquiring about my life in general? Do they want a summary of today’s world news? Of course, I know that the answer is none of these – they do not want an answer at all.<\/p>\n

In shops and fast food outlets, I am commonly greeted with “Y’alright there?”, which is an abbreviation for “Are you alright there?”. This is terminology that I would use if I saw somebody who appeared to be in distress. So, the first time that I was addressed this way, I assumed that I looked less than 100%. Of course, what they really mean is “Can I help you?” or “What do you want?”<\/p>\n

A challenge for you: Next time you are in your favorite burger joint and are greeted with “Y’alright there?”, respond with “Yes thank you. I am absolutely fine. How are things going for you?” and see what response you get. Good luck with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although I am essentially a monoglot, I am interested in languages, which I have written about before. As I travel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10171,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4892\/revisions\/10171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4892"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=4892"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=4892"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}