🚀 go-pugleaf

Anthea wrote:
>
>By the way, do you teach your students pat phrases like "have a good day"?
>Are they more or less important for students to learn than swear words are?


My response involves "Hi (Hello, Gidday etc).  How are you?" which is used
widely in Australia.  I walked into a business class and said this to my
students. The student responses varied from "I've got a hangover" to
headaches and tiredness.  Given that "Hello.  How are you?" actually
functions as a greeting, I decided to do an impromptu lesson on  the
expressions of social interaction in Australia.  The students (some of whom
had lived in Australia for months and had heard the expression often) were
amazed that the required response was "Fine/Good thanks and you?" The
discussion was animated with some of the students saying that the questioner
did not really care about the other person if his/her expectation was that
that person would answer "Fine/good etc".  I had to point out that despite
the meaning of the words, the expression functioned as a greeting and an
acknowledgement of the other person. I pointed out that if you wanted to
know about someone's health you would ask " How are you feeling?"

Margaret Kettle <M.Kettle@MAILBOX.UQ.EDU.AU>

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