Good morning/afternoon etc

[WalterWills]

One thing I've noticed is that Japanese people will say "Good morning" to you if it's the morning where THEY are, rather than where you are.

So if I phoned someone in the US and it was morning over there but lunchtime here in the UK, I'd say "Good morning" whereas a Japanese person would say "Konnichiwa"..


Has anyone else noticed this or is it something I've just made up?! If it is true I guess it's because there's a difference in meaning between "Good morning" and "Ohayou gozaimasu" even though they're used in the same way.

[jkeyz15]

I don't know...I never paid attention about greetings or anything.

But as a side note, ohayou comes from ' o + an old conjugation of hayai'

[JonB]

from Japan to the Europe and the US and we always use the time of day in our greeting based on where we are. I guess it is a kind of comedy ritual

But I believe technically in Japanese you can use Ohayou gozaimasu for the first contact of the day regardless of time - I seem to remember a teacher telling me that years ago and I do sometimes hear it in early afternoon

[WalterWills]

Yeah I think that's true, I've heard so myself.