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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   2878 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 27, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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A coworker from our London office visited last week and I flubbed the greeting. He did the British "You all right?" and I completely panicked. I said yeah thanks and quickly walked past to my desk. I don't know why it's such a disorienting way to say hello, or why it's so popular over there.

...what's the appropriate response?

edit: like your coworker, i'm getting some mixed signals here

"I'm well, thanks, how are you?"

"I'm fucking great 'mate', why, do you want to start something? Is this area of the office your little fiefdom? Do you want to see my papers? Do I need a fucking passport to walk past your cubicle?"

Alternatively "S'alright!" in a falsetto Spanish accent.

Textbook fluent native is:
"Alright?"
"Alright?"

It's like "what's up?". It could be interpreted as a sincere question if you're not familiar with it as a greeting but the context typically indicates that they're not making a genuine query.

“Fine thanks, yeah”

This is not actually wrong/rude, especially coming from an American, but still unusual and the norm would be to answer it without answering the question and just giving another general greeting like 'morning' or whatever, or most commonly as someone else your own 'alright'?

"Never ask me that again unless I'm bleeding to death."

I guess “you all right?” is just a more positive way of asking “how are ya”.

Not really. It's sometimes meant as a "something's wrong with you, what do you think you are up to?"

It leaves the recipient wondering what meaning was intended by it. I wouldn't use it.

That's not how I interpret it - you would specifically inflect the phrase as a question if you were concerned. Most of the time, 'you alright' is said more neutrally with no rising pitch, indicating that it's just a greeting. That said I still hate it because I feel like I have to give a response.

Context and intonation always distinguish between the two, and I have never found myself wondering what was meant by the phrase in any particular situation.

From the other side "hey" doesn't make much sense as a greeting as it's central meaning here would be to call attention to someone or something eg. "Hey, watch out for that hole!", "Hey, over here!" or "Hey! You pulled a trick on me!".

It's used as "hello" in many Germanic languages:

Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Polish hej (“hey, hello”), Romanian hei, Russian эй (ej, “hey”);

It stresses me out as well, since I always feel it's a thinly veiled observation that I am not alright.

I got the same thing when I went to Australia. They say "no worries" instead of "you're welcome", which sounds like they're forgiving me for something.

I say that, or "no problem" and I'm from the northeast US. I think it's just supposed to be saying "don't worry, no need to thank me or feel indebted, it was not an inconvenience"

I hope you cleaned up your spaghetti at least

The Northern Irish equivalent would be "Bout ye" and I admit i have tormented American colleagues with it, while they stare confused.

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