People are strange...
Jan. 6th, 2006 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lb...And I include myself in that.
Typical conversation in the café where I sometimes get lunch:
Café-person: Howaya?
Me: Fine. You?
Café-person: No bother*. Good New Year's?
Me: Yeah, actually. Wasn't bad at all. Yours?
Café-person (with a grin): Still recovering. (Pause) Grand bright day today, isn't it?
Me: It is that. They say we'll have frost tonight, though.
Café-person: Wouldn't be surprised. (Pause) So what are you having, then?
No conversation between almost-strangers is complete without a 'Howaya?' (edit for accent: sometimes 'howyadoon?' sometimes 'howayiz?' and sometimes, rarely, 'how are you?') and a mention of the weather. Comments on the traffic, the passing trade, and approaching/just finished holidays might also make an appearance; if one is at a train station or bus stop, one is practically obliged to say something about 'bloody public transport in this country,' (this does not apply for DARTs. The DART runs frequently and frequently on time, damn them). If you're more than a passing acquaintance and have other acquaintances in common, inquiring after people you both might know generally forms part of the conversation, though this more usually takes the form of:
You: See Sinead around these days?
Them: Last weekend.
You: How's she doing, then?
Them: Grand, grand. (Pause) Do you ever see Siobhán these days?
You: Not for months.
I'm amazed at the form human interactions take, and how strange it sounds when you think about it. You run into people, have a whole conversation with them, and at the end of it all you don't know any more about each other than when you started.
*The answer to 'Howaya?' is nearly always some variant of Fine, Grand, No bother, Well enough. Flu-struck staggering people, and people who look half-dead, have been known to answer, Not too bad and Oh, can't complain.
Typical conversation in the café where I sometimes get lunch:
Café-person: Howaya?
Me: Fine. You?
Café-person: No bother*. Good New Year's?
Me: Yeah, actually. Wasn't bad at all. Yours?
Café-person (with a grin): Still recovering. (Pause) Grand bright day today, isn't it?
Me: It is that. They say we'll have frost tonight, though.
Café-person: Wouldn't be surprised. (Pause) So what are you having, then?
No conversation between almost-strangers is complete without a 'Howaya?' (edit for accent: sometimes 'howyadoon?' sometimes 'howayiz?' and sometimes, rarely, 'how are you?') and a mention of the weather. Comments on the traffic, the passing trade, and approaching/just finished holidays might also make an appearance; if one is at a train station or bus stop, one is practically obliged to say something about 'bloody public transport in this country,' (this does not apply for DARTs. The DART runs frequently and frequently on time, damn them). If you're more than a passing acquaintance and have other acquaintances in common, inquiring after people you both might know generally forms part of the conversation, though this more usually takes the form of:
You: See Sinead around these days?
Them: Last weekend.
You: How's she doing, then?
Them: Grand, grand. (Pause) Do you ever see Siobhán these days?
You: Not for months.
I'm amazed at the form human interactions take, and how strange it sounds when you think about it. You run into people, have a whole conversation with them, and at the end of it all you don't know any more about each other than when you started.
*The answer to 'Howaya?' is nearly always some variant of Fine, Grand, No bother, Well enough. Flu-struck staggering people, and people who look half-dead, have been known to answer, Not too bad and Oh, can't complain.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-06 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-07 12:41 am (UTC)And I've heard more sick people than not answer "Howaya?" with, "Fine," or, "Not too bad," or the perennial croaked favorite, "Ah, could be worse."
Admitting to being unwell is... not something my family or acquaintances do often, or gracefully :-).
no subject
Date: 2006-01-07 01:47 am (UTC)It's quite a shocker here when someone admits to being unwell, too. Mostly we're "fine" or "alright". :)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-07 02:57 am (UTC)Upper Midwest, where there's hordes of Scandinavian descendants, they tend to be more laconic and under-whelmed. (See: Keillor, Garrison and National Public Radio's "A Prairie Home Companion", in particular the "Minnesotan Language Lessons"). An interaction is likely to be "Hey" and "Hey". This is a deep and heart-felt greeting between family members. The answer to "how are you" is always "Fine" except if you are truly deeply ill, in which case the answer is "Not bad".
In the South, especially the Deep South (Louisiana, Alabama, etc.), you're likely to get a life story at the drop of a pin. Everything involves stories. When you've got a question or a problem, you call up the other party and launch into your explanation. Not doing so is rude.
In the Metro NE region (which stretches from Boston to Washington DC, and includes NYC as well as Philadelphia), there's more of a hurry and less of an actual connection. You'll get the "Howzit goin'?" and maybe an answer "Fine, how you?" without any real expectation of conversation. This changes as you develop a "relationship", so the more often you see each other, the longer your interactions will be. There might even be some eye contact. ;-)
Out West, say in California, they all have lengthy conversations with each other to begin with, so they're none of them strangers. This is the San Francisco Bay Area only, I have not been to other parts of CA in years. Anyways, people greet each other effusively if they're just passing acquaintances.
It's a good subject for a study, yanno. You could do a lengthy observational study, comparative for ages, genders, regional differences...nice papers in that. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-07 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-07 08:13 pm (UTC)Too bad you can't do the ancient history version of that. ;-) :-P
no subject
Date: 2006-01-07 09:39 pm (UTC)Living history? If it's still alive it can't be history, can it? :-)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-08 02:34 am (UTC)