Section 69
Goodbyes
“Goodbye” seems such a simple and common word.
This English word is known all around the world, yet there are many ways to say it.
In some countries, they use the same word for “goodbye” as “hello”.
Arabs and Israelis say “salom” or “shalom” for both “hello” and “goodbye”, and it means peace.
In the west we can say “see you”, “later”, “so long”, “farewell”, etc.
We often use phrases adopted from other languages.
“Au revoir”, French, “chio”, Italian, are very commonly used in the west.
A wave of the hand can say both hello and goodbye in most cultures.
To most of us, saying goodbye to close friends and family can be very painful.
If we know it is going to be for a long time, then goodbyes are emotional.
“Nice to have met you”, “looking forward to seeing you again”, “welcome back” are terms used in situations where we don’t know the other person so well.
Goodbyes have polite forms, informal forms and close friendship forms.
A goodbye can be accompanied by a kiss, or a shake of hands, or just smile and nod.
One thing is for sure, most of the time “hello” is better than “goodbye”.
However we say it, it should always be remembered, that we can never say goodbye if there has never been “hello” first.
