A cultural greeting, have you eaten yet?

Every country has culture, or rather, there are people within a country, and within that people, speaks a certain language, furthermore, that language is usually evolved from a certain culture or community.

A fairly interesting and common phrase that most Chinese, Taiwanese or Mandarin  person will say to you especially in the early afternoon or early evening is "吃飽了沒?(chī bǎo le méi)"

The above phrase may also be roughly translated into Taiwanese as "假霸未(jiǎ bà mui4)"

In English: "Have you eaten yet?"

I guess this is so because in the early peasant days of Mainland China and Taiwan's, having a fulfilling meal wasn't easy and most people have to work in the rice fields. Greeting each other with the phrase "吃飽了沒?(chī bǎo le méi)" or "假霸未(jiǎ bà mui4)" would be seen as respectful to the other party, therefore the greeting phrase sort of made its way through modern times. Although not as common in the northern Taiwan area anymore(especially areas such as Taipei and so forth)


Also, a very common phrase said by Asians all over, especially when two parties haven't seen each other for a long time, is the phrase "好久不見(hǎo jǐu bú jiàn)" OR in a more complete form "好久不見, 你/妳好嗎(hǎo jǐu bú jiàn nǐ hǎo mā?)


This phrase is usually translated into English as: It's been a while, how're you? however I've heard more and more or the variation "Long time no see, how're you" in the past couple of years, so I reckon it's becoming a more accepted greeting in many western countries these days.