There are traditional greetings, of course, like Good afternoon and How are you? But folks who know each other well often acknowledge each other with more creative, less formal greetings. They might ask How’re your feet and ears? or How are you froggin’? Or Whatcha got on? Your mind? Colleagues who pass each other in the hall every day might toss off a casual What’s workin’? Spanish speakers have been known to greet each other with Hola, hola, Coca-Cola and the rhyming phrase ¿Que te pasa, calabaza? or literally, “What’s up, pumpkin?” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “How YOU Doin’?”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Grant, how’s your feet and ears?
My what?
My feet and ears?
Yeah, how’s your feet and ears?
How are my elbows and my knees?
I don’t know.
I mean, how are you frogging?
How am I frogging?
Are we talking about the video game or talking about going out with a lantern and trying to catch frogs?
What are you talking about, Martha?
Well, actually, in the case of frogging, I’m talking about your health.
You know, are you nimble?
Are you hopping around like a frog?
Am I hopping? Yeah.
Yeah, these are just a couple of silly greetings that I’ve come across recently.
I was thinking about the fact that, you know, especially among people who know each other well, like you and I do, greetings aren’t always what you expect.
They’re certainly not the kinds of greetings that you run into on Duolingo, for example.
You know, I knew somebody in the past who used to always say, what you got on?
Your mind?
Yeah.
Some people say there was a job I had for some reason.
The thing that people would say was, what’s working?
What’s working?
And it kind of meant, what are you working on?
Or what’s happening in your part of the company?
But it was shortened to what’s working?
What’s working?
When you’ve passed somebody 50 times a day in the hallway, you know, you’re not going to do a full greeting every time.
Exactly. And I think we’re just, you know, endlessly creative and playful.
And the more I started thinking about this, I mean, the kinds of formal greetings that you’re taught in books just don’t always happen.
I have Spanish speaking friends and I always say, ¿Qué te pasa, calabaza?
You know, what’s up, pumpkin? What’s going on?
And they reply, hola, hola, Coca-Cola.
It’s stupid, but it performs a function, right? Yeah.
Well, we’d love to hear the goofy way that you greet your families, your friends, and your coworkers.
Share them all.
Tell us in voicemail, toll-free, United States and Canada, 877-929-9673.
Or send your funny stuff and email to words@waywordradio.org.
And you can hear all of our past episodes and find lots of ways to talk to us on social media on our website at waywordradio.org.
