Of Greetings & Salutations...

[SckizoBoy]

I'll precis this by saying that I'm British born and bred for context.

I got together with an old colleague for dinner and a loooooooooooong chat the other evening. She was then to be picked up by an old housemate of hers since she's doing a quick run around the country meeting friends etc. I hadn't met this housemate before and we got introduced and what do I do? I fucking bowed!

I'm not that Oriental... am I?! I then tried remembering each time I've been introduced to people for whatever reason, and yeah... I bow nearly every time.

'

So, how do you greet people you meet for the first time? Handshake? Supercilious sniff? Sloppy kiss on the cheek? Chest bump? etc.

 

[Nouw]

Depends on who they are. If it's a senior family member I bow, for everyone else I just say hi or hello.

 

[Jonluw]

Handshake.
I sort of bow without thinking about it as well though.

I think I've just watched too much anime. Started to internalize a bit of the body language.

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Nod my head.
Give them acknowledgement that they exist.
A "hello" as well sometimes.
)Depends on how distracted I am)

 

[Zhukov]

If it's someone new I shake hands.

If I've met them before I nod.

 

[AndrewF022]

I stern handshake and a friendly G'day. The Aussie way haha.

Either that or a nod and a 'sup?'.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

Firm handshakes for meeting strangers and a big, friendly hug for friends and family. I do have a habit of nodding towards people when I meet them as well, I think, but that's about it.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

A firm handshake for anyone new, and a nod coupled with a fitting variant of 'hello' if it is someone I know. It really depends on who it is though.

With some people I do a very polite hello routine.

Spoiler: With others I might just do this

And I've noticed that as of late I've started bowing to pretty women. I'm so easy to read.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Wow really? I mean I'm Chinese too but I had never bow when it come to greetings, well I guess I am brought up that way.
Anyway the way I greet people is petty much a wave and a saying either "hello" to older people or someone new or "hi" if it's a friend or someone I'm familar with (yeah I'm not exactly a social guy).

 

[Pinkamena]

1: Meet someone new
2: Introduce myself
3: Sing random song out of nowhere
4: Become instant best friends!

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Introduce myself if we haven't already been introduced, followed by a handshake.

 

[Phasmal]

Because I'm a girl, loads of people go for the introductory cheek-air-kiss.
I hate it, I really do. I just don't like having people that close to my face just the second after I meet them.
I would prefer just to say hi and maybe a handshake, but I'm pretty shy in general so if I had my way I could just wave at people probably from behind something.

 

[Fappy]

Firm handshake. If I am out of my element I might a give a bewildered, "oh hey" followed by a nod or an awkward handshake.

 

[IamQ]

Because I'm a girl, loads of people go for the introductory cheek-air-kiss.
I hate it, I really do. I just don't like having people that close to my face just the second after I meet them.
I would prefer just to say hi and maybe a handshake, but I'm pretty shy in general so if I had my way I could just wave at people probably from behind something.

Is that a girl thing? Huh, when I thought of that I always thought of french people or italian mobsters.

OT: First time? a handshake and a nod. Met them before? hand in the air and a "hi"

 

[Phasmal]

Because I'm a girl, loads of people go for the introductory cheek-air-kiss.
I hate it, I really do. I just don't like having people that close to my face just the second after I meet them.
I would prefer just to say hi and maybe a handshake, but I'm pretty shy in general so if I had my way I could just wave at people probably from behind something.

Is that a girl thing? Huh, when I thought of that I always thought of french people or italian mobsters.

OT: First time? a handshake and a nod. Met them before? hand in the air and a "hi"

Dunno, but usually when I meet new people I am with the boyfriend, so they go for handshake with him and cheek-kiss with me, so I sorta just assumed.

 

[SonicWaffle]

So, how do you greet people you meet for the first time? Handshake? Supercilious sniff? Sloppy kiss on the cheek? Chest bump? etc.

Depends on my level of inebriation. Sober, generally a nod or a quiet "hi", drunk more of an "alright mate?"

Of course, it also depends who is introducing them to you. If it's a mate introducing you to one of their other friends, it's fairly appropriate to say "so how do you know this limp-dick fraggle?" as an icebreaker, which doesn't go down quite so well when being introduced to your boss' business contacts.

 

[DrRockor]

If they're my age then I wave and say hey or yo. If they're older than me I'm always uncertain. I usually wait for them to initiate things like handshakes or anything formal, otherwise its back to just hey

 

[Aerosteam]

Distance-wise, when they're far away, I always wave my hands. When they're close, I nod if she's female and handshake if he's male.

I try to avoid shaking hands but when someone moves their hands to a handshaking position I do it anyway.

Not because I can't help it, but because it's not very nice to not handshake someone when they expect you to.