3 Greetings to 🚫 STOP 🚫 Saying

- Hello English learners, English teachers, how is it going?

(upbeat pop music)

In this lesson, we are going to learn

about three greetings that you should stop using

if you want to be fluent in English,

if you wanna be an awesome English speaker.

This is a bonus lesson this week

because I am so excited, we are this close

to reaching one million subscribers here

on the Go Natural English Youtube channel.

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So now we're gonna talk about greetings,

three greetings to stop using

because I personally consider them totally inappropriate

as a native English speaker from North America.

And this video was actually inspired by the success

of a video I did a couple weeks ago

that a lot of people are really enjoying,

it's right up there if you want to watch it,

about five things to stop saying in English.

And what I've realized is that there are different ways

that people greet each other in different cultures.

And when you're a beginner English student,

you learn that, you know, hello

in your native language is hello in English.

And it's quite simple, hello is a very basic greeting

and it works in every situation.

But once you get into more colorful, colloquial,

or situational ways to greet people,

you cannot translate directly anymore

because there are cultural issues.

Okay, so let's begin with the first greeting.

- Hello, my love.

- Okay guys, I'm living in Brazil, I get it.

In Spanish or Portuguese-speaking cultures,

hello, my love is actually quite normal.

I've heard people saying this as a greeting

when they're asking strangers for directions.

So I think it's really warm and nice and lovely.

However, it does not work in English.

This comes across as having a romantic interest

in someone when you're speaking English.

So unless you're in a Latino community

in an English-speaking country,

I would advise you to simply say hello.

- Hello, ma'am, ma'am, madam, madam.

Sir, hello, sir?

- Ma'am, madam, and sir make me feel like I'm 80 years old.

You can use these in English, but for me,

they should only be used with much older people

who you want to show respect to.

I really prefer using just a respectful tone

of voice and saying, excuse me.

Okay, let's see what's next for our third greeting.

And I'm actually gonna share four.

I'm gonna have a bonus greeting

to avoid here, so keep watching.

- Hello, my friend.

Hello, my friend.

Hello, hello, my friend.

- Okay, when someone says hello, my friend,

I know two things for sure.

One, it's a dead giveaway that

they are for sure not my friend.

And two, it probably means they're trying

to sell me something, at least,

that's how it works in English in North America.

I understand completely, in other languages,

it's totally normal to say hello, my friend

to a stranger and you're just being nice.

But in English, it sounds strange.

We don't usually say this.

So instead, I would just recommend saying,

excuse me, hey, how's it going?

Hey is more casual, hello is more formal.

So I promised I would share a fourth greeting to avoid.

So let's take a look at our final inappropriate greeting.

- Teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher.

Excuse me, beautiful teacher, hm.

(chill electronic music)

- Okay, let's talk about teacher.

I know in a lot of other languages,

calling your teacher teacher is normal.

But in English, it's not, and it's like the equivalent

of calling your accountant accountant.

Hey, accountant, hey, excuse me, accountant.

Wouldn't you just call your accountant by his or her name?

It's the same in English when you're talking

to your teacher, I assure you that

if you have an American teacher, a North American teacher,

they do not want you to call them teacher.

So if you want to learn more about words

that you should stop using, including teacher,

which I talked about in the last video, click up there.

You can check out the five things to stop saying in English

to be a fluent English speaker.

So these are things that you don't

usually learn in a regular English class,

in a traditional classroom with a regular textbook.

That's how the name Go Natural English came about.

So if you enjoyed this lesson, let me know.

Give it a thumbs up, you can hit the round button

with my face on it right down there

to subscribe, and let's get to a million.

I love you all, my beautiful students.

Was that inappropriate? (laughs)

It's not a greeting, it's not a greeting.

And you are beautiful, darn it, and smart, and talented.

Anyway, I gotta go, guys.

I'll see you in another lesson soon, bye.