A reader writes:
Apropos of your coverage of “Hi” as distinctively American, I thought you might be amused by this anecdote. Many years ago, while touring New Orleans, I decided to go to a service at the Catholic cathedral in Jackson Square, in the heart of the French Quarter. I’d been raised a Lutheran, though I was a lapsed one at the time, and I had never attended a Catholic service before. At the end of it, the priest asked the congregation to something or other (I forget his exact words), at which point the immaculately dressed elderly lady in front of me turned around and said to me, “May the peace of God be with you.” I was so discombobulated by this completely unexpected turn of liturgical events that all I found myself blurting out to her was “Hi!”
Another reader:
“Hi!” was my first, and for a long time, only, word, as a baby. It is for many American kids. “Hi!” “Hi!” They hear it all around.
Another:
We have neighbors who moved in last year from Burma. They are part of the Karen ethnic group. They have two small kids, maybe 4 and 5. Their family and ours have struggled with the language barrier, but whenever the kids see me they say “HI!”. I finally got a chance to talk to an English-speaking family member, and asked what the normal Karen greeting was. Like many languages, it depends on the time of day, and the relative station each speaker occupies. But the kids have found a great new toy – greeting someone without worrying about any of that stuff. “Hi!”
Someone should start a new blog about democracy in America. Call it “Hi Times.”
The Dish 