How do you greet friends from around the world?

[ShawnFuzz]

I just had a discussion with a close friend of mine who lives in Germany. I live in the U.S., Colorado. I work late hours and got off of work after midnight. She called to chat, and the first thing she said was "Good morning". Since it was shortly after midnight for me, and almost bed time, I didn't know how to respond.

The same thing happened when we said our goodbyes. Simply saying "goodye" to a cherished friend seems inappropriate and heartless.

Have any of you been in major timezone differences with friends, family or acquaintances where you want to say something that means the same thing across the board? Instead of "good morning" or " goodnight"... is there a sort of gender neutral-like term that crosses timezone boundaries?

What do you say?

 

[kisaker39]

I can relate to this. I am from England, and i have many online acquaintances from different countries, mainly Americans. I will usually say something like "i will speak to you later" or "sorry, i have to go now". it doesn't sound as cold as "goodbye", nor is it time sensitive like "goodnight". sometimes i say things such as "i just woke up" or "i am going to sleep now". i have one friend who knows that our timezones are 8 hours apart, and they send me good morning and good night messages at the appropriate time for my timezone despite it not being appropriate for theirs.

to answer your question, maybe just a warmer way of saying goodbye is the answer.

 

[Chris]

I tend not to use descriptors for the time of day unless we're in similar time zones. I'm from a place where people tend to speak very familiarly with each other and use terms of endearment with everyone (inc strangers), so a lot of my conversations start with something along the line of, "Hey hon, how you doing?" and end with "Gotta go, catch you later mate."

I tend to use "Happy sleeps" or "Sleep well" instead of good night if they're going straight to bed.

 

[ZeldaCrossing64]

Similarly as above, I don't really use time descriptors with online friends with vastly different time zones. But I'll tell them "good morning/good night" if they just woke up or are going to bed, even if it's not appropriate in my time. I usually just say "cya" or "talk to you later" (very casual, I know) when I'm about to log off and sleep, anyways.

However, most of my online friends are either in the same time zone as me or we're only a couple of hours apart, so it's not much of a bother for me if they tell me "good morning/afternoon/night".

 

[Pyoopi]

I have friends in Europe and Asia; I just accept their normal time of day greetings even if it doesn't match mine. One of my friend's nights is my afternoons and she'll just say good night where I respond with "Have a nice sleep" or something along those lines. Vice versa if it's my time to sleep and it's her afternoon, I'll say "Okay I must sleep". I just kind of keep it casual like "Have a nice night/day" sorta thing.

 

[Midoriya]

I usually just say "talk to you later" or "see you later," lmao.

 

[-Blue-]

I used to know someone that would say 'don't die' whenever they logged off for the night or day or whatever.

Wait what was the question? You could always just ask how they are doing instead of greeting the time of the day. 'How's it going, how are you, have have you been' ect ect.

 

[ShawnFuzz]

I used to know someone that would say 'don't die' whenever they logged off for the night or day or whatever.

Believe it or not, my friend in Germany might actually find this greeting/goodbye as extremely agreeable and amusing. I know you said it as a joke, but thanks for giving us weirdos something to say haha

I am still open to other ideas though if the rest of you have any?

 

[LadyDestani]

I usually base my greetings on their time zone if I know it well enough. I'm in the US and work with people in India. We have a meeting every day that takes place first thing in the morning for me, but they are getting ready to go home for the day. I always say "Good evening" to them. Likewise, they say "Good morning" to me.

For more casual relationships, I would probably just use generic phrases: "Hey", "What's up?", "How's it going?", "Take care", "Talk to you later", etc. If someone said they're going to bed, I'd respond with "Good night." If they said they were off to work or to do something else, I might say "Have a good day."