[Kristoferson]

heh...that's when I speak to them in my Tony Leung(God of Gamblers 2) "ham sap" voice.

"Siew Cheh..."

Bwahahahaha!!

[soydaykam]

Nae bad pet... nae bad... 'n hoo are things wi'you...?

och away cheers...!

[IvJlNwum]

Yeah, I hate it when they start rummaging around in their handbag for the can of mace.
If you like a challenge try walking down the street in Japan saying 'konichiwa' to everyone you meet. I reckon the white van wouldl be along inside twenty minutes.

[ImmitsRom]

Hullo! Hows it goin?

[dosyrotsbop]

In big cities, insecurity is one of the symtoms of claustrophobia. Always worrying that the other person is going to harm or cheat you in some ways. We got crimewatch programs telling people to be aware of talking in the middle of the street with strangers - while distracted your wallet will be at risk. We were also taught since kindergarten time not to talk to strangers. It's "dangerous"...

Usually I'll offer my help for tourists who look lost. But I'll prefer ignoring the following people:-
Sales promoting mobile phone plans
Sales trying to sign me up for credit cards
Sales promoting cosmetics
Charity volunteers asking for donations
Mormons/ Jehovah's Witnesses
Etc. etc.

But last night chatting with bored bar staff members gave me a whole night of unlimited beer refill..!!

[plaiskegizils]

hmm its really wierd because when i went to atlanta people always said hi to me in the streets, and i just thought they were either insane or mistook me for someone else, but then i realised it was kinda normal in america, whereas in england if someone says hi to another person they might either get knocked out or arrested

Sure your fly wasn't open? hahaha

Hi everyone!

I live in a closed community of about 2000 people and everyone knows everybody else. It's pretty hard to walk even twenty metres to the shop without spending ten minutes discussing weather, who's left who, who's pregnant, who's trying to get pregnant and why such-and-such's dog got run over.
It would be nice to try a little anonymity now and then.

Cheers.

Maaaaaaaaaan...I'd hate to be a politician in your town...you can't even have a decent bit of fornication without the next door bugger knowing.

[Toivaluadiora]

I'm not sure if it bothers you guys as much as it does me...but...recently, I've been walking my dog through a more populated area of our neighborhood. Usually when I pass someone walking or someone else walking their dog I say hello or at least hi. I'm going to have to say 98 precent of the time no one says hello back to me...It's kind of...weird...well...maybe I'm weird. But does anyone else feel kind of insulted by this?

[JonnTEN]

And it's kind of sad, too, that you can't walk down the street and say 'Hi' to someone without it being assumed that it's some kind of pickup line, or that you're some kind of weirdo. Here in the Midwest, we always attributed that to the big cities, like NewYork, Los Angeles, etc., where people seemed to be standoffish.

When I ride my bicycle around town, I'm still surprised at the number of people who do greet me. I try to give everyone I see at least a smile and a nod, since it's dangerous to try to wave in traffic.

There are probably some really nice places where they still greet you, though. Charleston, SC comes to mind, some of the places in the Great Plains, too.

[Irrampbroow]

hello appeals more like exchanging pleasentries with an aquintance.

when interacting with strangers, a "good day" may work best...

any way a wild guess.

it works charms where I come from

[soyclocky]

Hahah funny topic

I agree it is kind of rude that someone says Hello to you and you just ignore them even though they're strangers. I say hello back to strangers who says Hi to me... it kind of freak me out sometimes when a guy just jumps out of nowhere and just say hi and just stood there... I just say hi back nervously and am I supposed to tell him about myself instead of roll my eyes and run really fast? lol

Talking about freaking out ppl saying hi to me... last week some guy yelled across the parking lot and say hi to me, lol I said hello back and rolled my eyes and went into my car really quick

The freakiest "hello" I ever got was when I was at work picking up mails (was job duty), and when I was trying to unlock the lock box. A guy came out of the elevator walked back and forth for 1 minute then came right behind me and said "How are you doing?!" He seems so happy, so I was like "Fine, thanks.... can I help you?" (I was crouching down, too btw) After that, he just like did a oh-forget-it hand gesture and walked away, lol It was pretty funny

[jimbomaxf]

I don't care if people say hello to me on the street, but I can't stand it when I walk up to the counter of some store and I say hello and the clerk just looks at me or ignores me all together.

I thought I was the customer. If I was the manager I would take care of that right away.

[aAaBecker]

Adelaide is a very friendly place, people will always say hi back and you'll nearly always find good conversation if you're looking to do so.


I think in general most of Australia is good in this regard, when I used to live in Hong Kong it definitely was not like this. Def a big-city syndrome thing here

[Enjoymms]

I feel wierd saying hello to people on the street. I think it is the result of times changing and more people doing more creepy things, or at least we have more knowledge of creepy things happening now with all the forms of media and communication around now. You never know if that random person walking down the street is crazy.

Granted, most people I have met are wonderful, nice people, or at least decent people even though they may not be friendly to me personally or whatever. But it is the harsh truth that there are just a lot of odd balls out there and people are getting to be more guarded about who they are friendly with.

[Opening-auto]

When I moved to Bath I thought "Okay, UK small town...ppl should be nice." So as I was walking in the park, I passed an old lady and her dog. Said "hello" and smiled and she gave me the old classic "OMG! Take my money but don't kill me" look.

sigh...

Hahaha, you weren't holding a shinai in your hand when you greeted her, were you?

[DownloadADOBEsoftware]

Here where I live, (Blackpool, North West England) people hardly ever greet each other like this. However, Blackpool is not your usual town, if you said 'Hello' to a random bloke on the street here there is approx. :

60% chance he is homosexual and thinks you are hitting on him
15% chance that he is a drag queen and thinks you are hitting on him
35% chance that they are just down right crazy and will follw you around for the rest of the day
85% chance they are drunk and disorderly and will either ignore you, throw up or insist that you are challenging them to a fight
20% chance that they will respond with 'spare me some change?'
25% chance they will ask you take part in a survey, ask you to join a religious cult or say 'have you had an accident in the past 3 years? if so...'
8% chance that they will stare at you blankly as they do speak english
0.05% chance that they will respond in a resonable and friendly manner.

I know that adds up to 248.05% but you get my drift.

However, I have an unsually strange next door neighbour. since the day we moved in he's spoken to me like we've known each other since childhood. no 'Hi, I'm your new neighbour', just straight into 'Hello there! how are you today? Lovely/Miserable weather isn't it? oh well shame we have to go to work...'.

In response I didn't know what to do! so I just went along, found myself saying 'Hello!, I'm fine thanks! yes the weather's great/horrible isnt it! yes it is a shame, well at least the weekend's just around the corner!' and now we repeat this conversation every morning, and have done for more than a year! What's even weirder is that we have NEVER had the 'Hello, My name is Andy' conversation, so we have no idea of each other's names!

crazy!

[VUzgOhgv]

Brisbane is the best place I've ever lived in this regard. People here are very friendly. When I first moved up from Sydney I found it quite confronting to have people want to strike up a conversation every time you buy a newspaper. Girls are generally much friendlier up here too.

The weirdest conversation starter I ever had was a guy who came up to me when I was working in a take-away store and said "How do you judge a man who'd feed a baby to a dog".

[grizolsemn]

Yeah, I hate it when they start rummaging around in their handbag for the can of mace.
If you like a challenge try walking down the street in Japan saying 'konichiwa' to everyone you meet. I reckon the white van wouldl be along inside twenty minutes.

More like a grayish...

[Hervams]

And, of course, the irony of all of this is how incredibly simple it is to talk to complete strangers online, in forums...

Hello, everyone. *waves*

[vesiasmepay]

Maybe you should stop wearing your bogu when walking the dog.