AROUND THE WORLD- 
OTHER CULTURES 
  
HELLO in other languages: 

  Spanish - hola, "hello",  Buenos Dias 
- good day    (Bway-nohs Dee ahs), 
 (oh-la) 
 Buenos dias is good day, Buenos 
tardes is good afternoon/evening. 
 German - Guten Morgen,  "Good 
morning"  Wilcommen, "Welcome",  
Guten Tag  - 
 good day (Goot-n Tahk) 
 English - welcome 
 Hawaiian - Aloha 
 French - Bonjour 
  In informal settings, we also say 
"Allo!" or "Salut!" to greet one 
another 
 in French. 
 Italian - Ciao, "hello" 
  Did you know that "ciao" is also used 
in Spanish to say goodbye? 
 Icelandic - Velkomin (to a female), 
Velkominn (to a male) 
 Chinese (Mandarin) - Nimen hao 
(sounds like "knee men how") This is 
to say 
 hello to more than one person.  For 
one person it's Ni hao. 
 Chinese (Cantonese) - Josan (long o 
sound) 
 Japanese - Ohayo gozaimasu (good 
morning), Kon nichi wa (good 
afternoon) 
 Australian - G'day 
 Hebrew - Shalom (hello, good bye, 
and peace),  Boker Tov - good 
morning 
 Russian - Dobrey dyen 
 Swahili - Jambo,  hello 
 Portuguese -Bom Dia 
 Indian - Na-mas-te  (don't know which language) 
 Greek - Ghia sas 
 Norwegian - Hallo 
 Egyptian - Es Salaem alekum 
 Samoan (American and Weatern 
Samoa) - Talofalava (phonetic: ta-lo-
fa-lava, 
 a as in father), means hello, 
welcome, glad to see you, 
 "Sawubona" (to one person) sah 
woo boh' nah 
 "Sanibonani" (to more than one) 
sha nee boh nah' nee 
 Hello in Ojibwe  is Aanii   
(pronounced O (like open you mouth 
and say O)- 
 OOnee . This is from Manitoulin 
Island (West Bay First Nation)  in 
Ontario, 
 Canada. 
 Ohayoo (pronounced OHIO) Japanese 
 Talofa                   Samoan 
 Aloha  (also love, goodbye, and all 
kinds of stuff) Hawaiian 
 In Thai (that's Thailand not Taiwan) 
the word for hello, goodbye, etc. is 
 pronounced - soo-wah-dee-ka   with 
the accent on the last syllable.  They 
use a 
 totally different alphabet, so I can't 
tell you how to write it. 
 New Zealand Maori:   Kia ora 
(pronouced k-yaw-rah) 
 New Zealand kiwi:    Gidday   (gid-
day) 
 Cook Island:         Kia orana (k-
yaw-rahna) 
 Tongan:              Malo e Lelei  
(mahla-leh-lay 
  
 The children's musicians, "Gemini,"have a song called "Hello" or 
something 
 like that.  The verses go something 
like this: 
  
 "In France, they say 'Bon jour' 
 In China, they say 'Nee how' 
 In Israel, they say 'Shalom' 
 In Africa, they say 'Tumela' 
  
 In Mexico, they say 'Buenos dias' 
 In Russia, they say 'Strasvoitze' 
 In Japan, they say 'Konichi wa' 
 In India, they say 'Namaste' 
  
 In Dutch you can use the same 
word for hello and goodbye -- Dag! 
  
 Saying Hello 
 Each day say "hello" in different 
languages. Here are some ideas. 
  Ciao - Italian 
 Bon Jour - French 
 Hola - Spanish 
 African - Jambo 
 Israel - Shalom 
 Germany - Guten Tag 
 Soviet Union - Allo 
 Japan - Moshi 
  
 Here is a easy Japanese song to the 
tune of London bridges 
 It means "hello" 
 Moshi, moshi, ano ne 
 ano ne, ano ne. 
 moshi, moshi, ano ne 
 A so des ka? 
  
 Spanish: Buenos Dias (Bway-nohs 
Dee ahs) or Hola (oh-la) 
 Russian : Privet (Pri-vit) 
 Chinese: Wei (Wee) 
 German: Guten Tag (Goot-n Tahk) 
 Hebrew: Shalom (Shah lohm) 
 Hawaiian: Aloha (Ah-LOH-hah) 
 Swahili: Jambo (Jahm-boh) 
 French: Bonjour (Bohn-zhoor) or 
Salut Sah-loo) 
 Japanese: Konnichi Wa (Kon-ni-chi 
Wah) 
 Dutch: Hallo Hah-loh) 
 Italian: Ciao (Chow) 
 Hmong: Nyob Zoo ( Nyah Zhong) 
 English: Hello, Hi or Howdy 
 In India you say Namaste. 

  
CHINA  Activities: 
 
  
  We have a large Asian population 
here on the west coast of Canada.  
When 
 we study about different cultures 
during the holiday season we do the 
 following for China (some 
applicable to other Asian cultures): 
  
 Eat popcorn with chopsticks. 
 Learn the number characters (1-5) 
and practice them. 
 Learn about the significance of red 
in celebrations. 
 Create a large dragon for the 
traditional dragon dance. 
 Perform a school wide dragon 
dance. 
 Learn about the Chinese Calendar 
and the significance of each animal. 
 Read some stories by Chinese 
authors or about Chinese characters: 
 Lon Po Po - a little red riding hood 
story 
 Seven Blind Mice (by Ed Young) - 
a folk tale 
  
JAPAN Activities: 

We studied Japan last year because of 
the Olympics.  We did projects for 
BOYS 
Don't have the dates. 
 For boys day the tradition is to have all boys in a house hang carp kites 
 outside their house.  So the boys 
made a carp to hank  in our hallway.  
You 
 can use regular paper or colored 
tissue.  I had the shape already for 
them. 
 They put on an eye and gills and cut 
our tissue( or construction paper) 
scales 
 to glue all over the body.  If you 
make it into a kite(really more of a 
wind 
 sock) you need 2 fish and glue them 
together around the edges but do not 
glue 
 together at the mouth or the tail. (so 
wind can go through ) 
 For Girls day the girls display their 
dolls.  The girls made dolls dressed in 
 Kimonos.  I got the pattern from   
www.Disney.family.com 
 It is a great site with lots of ideas 
for families.  I think they  have 
 archives.   I think you can search 
within the site.  The pattern and 
 instructions were in an issue of 
Family Fun Magazine which is a 
Disney 
 product.   The site is based on that 
magazine. 
 We put the dolls out on the walls in 
the hall too and I wrote up a brief 
 discription of Boys and Girls Days 
in Japan.