Culture
Namaste greeting
Kathmandu, Nepal
The namaste greeting, palms together with a slight bow, is used across South Asia as a respectful hello or goodbye.
Tradition: Palms pressed together
Ways to say hello
Greetings with a word, a gesture or a bow. Tap the speaker to hear the language ones.
The places
Culture
The wai greeting
Bangkok, Thailand
Thais greet each other with the wai, and the height of the hands and depth of the bow show respect to elders and seniors.
Tradition: Palms-together bow
Language
Hindi
Delhi, India
Hindi, written in Devanagari, is one of India's official languages and is widely spoken across northern India and beyond.
Say hello: नमस्ते (Namaste) · Script: Devanagari
Language
Japanese
Tokyo, Japan
Japanese is written with three scripts used together: Chinese-derived kanji and the two syllabaries, hiragana and katakana.
Say hello: こんにちは (Konnichiwa) · Script: Kanji, hiragana, katakana
Language
Hawaiian (ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi)
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, United States
Hawaiian is an official language of Hawaiʻi alongside English, with a revival driven by immersion schools since the 1980s.
Say hello: Aloha · Script: Latin with ʻokina and kahakō
Language
Māori (te reo Māori)
Wellington, New Zealand
Te reo Māori became an official language of New Zealand in 1987 and has been revitalised through immersion schools.
Say hello: Kia ora · Script: Latin with macrons
Language
Swahili
Zanzibar City, Tanzania
A Bantu language with many Arabic loanwords, Swahili connects people across East Africa and grew along the Indian Ocean trading coast.
Say hello: Jambo / Habari · Script: Latin
Language
Zulu (isiZulu)
Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
The most widely spoken home language in South Africa. It uses click sounds borrowed from neighbouring languages, and 'Sawubona' means 'I see you'.
Say hello: Sawubona · Script: Latin
Language
Arabic
Cairo, Egypt
Arabic is written from right to left and spoken in many regional varieties across the Middle East and North Africa.
Say hello: مرحبا (Marhaba) · Script: Arabic, right to left