Greeting is form of words or an action used when meeting someone. ‘Hello’, ‘How are you’, ‘Good
morning’, ‘When are you going?’ These are greetings which people use in different languages when they meet
each other.
We use formal greetings when we greet someone politely and seriously in official communications
and situations. We greet, for example, someone who is older, strangers or people we don’t know very well.
We use informal greetings when we meet the people who know each otheror who are in the same
status, such as friends, colleagues, etc.
In general, a greeting is usually followed by ‘small talk’. Small talk here means the unimportant
things or little things we talk about at the start of a conversation. The topic in ‘small talk’ is often about the
weather: ‘The weather is fine.’ ‘Nice day, isn’t it?’ ‘Terrible weather, isn’t?’
The important thing about small talk is that there must be about something which both people have
agreed on it. The purpose of small talk is to let both sides agree on something. This makes meeting people
easier and more comfortable. Talking about weather is a safe topic for small talk. Don’t talk about religion or
politics which can lead to disagreement between people.
Greetings and small talk are an important part of conversation in any language, so there is much more
to learn when learning a language than just the vocabulary and the grammar of the language. We also have to
learn the culture or the social behavior of the people who speak it.