One of the first things I noticed when I started going back and forth between the U.S. and Argentina is the difference in how people greet each other. Like many countries in the world outside the U.S., in Argentina people kiss each other even when they’re meeting for the first time (and even when the people are both men.) This is something I wasn’t really used to. In general, the Argentinians seem to place a stronger emphasis on greeting each person individually.
When I brought my husband Lucas to my office in NYC, I had neglected to explain that in the U.S., when meeting large groups of people for the first time, typically one long wave for the whole group is sufficient. So, when I briefly introducing my six colleagues by name with a general wave in their direction, I smiled patiently as he walked over and slowly greeted each of them individually – men with a careful handshake (I had told him that men in the U.S. would not expect a kiss) and each of them women with a kiss (which, thankfully, was met unilaterally with delight.) Now, there is certainly something very nice about this kind of deliberate greeting. In the U.S., we’re just not accustomed to this.
But, what really caught my attention in Argentina is the spoken greeting that usually comes after the kiss. Sometimes, the greeting is the equivalent of something familiar like Como anda? How’s it going? or Que tal? What’s up? But often, the greeting is Todo bien? followed by Todo bien por suerte. The first part struck me as kind of surfer-speak that I would translate like All good (dude)? but the response – All good, luckily – seems to say that they don’t expect things to be good, but luckily, they are.
This idea of not expecting things to be good seems to be a core part of the Argentinian shared experience, possibly from decades of governmental corruption and public systems not functioning as they should. Is the United States heading in that direction with the current state of upheaval in our administration? It feels like it. I wonder if it will have an impact on our lexis in the U.S. someday. Will we start to develop a sense of gratitude? An understanding that despite it all, we are lucky?
Amy Habbas 