Louise Fowler

@alia

Hey! I’m about to start work on a blog post, I think. You?

@jenwriter17 @ariel-ashira @rochellaine @catwing @alia

Hey, anyone around? I’m about to start some work.

@ariel-ashira

I’ve never heard that song before  (that I remember)  but I just looked it up and its a very cool song. But no, its not our anthem. You’re doing better than most Americans though. They tend to think our anthem is Waltzing Matilda.

@seekjustice @jenwriter17 @ariel-ashira @alia @skredder Is anyone around?  I’ve got probably about an hour or so to work right now.

@daughteroftheking What happens next?  Chaos!  That’s why Star Trek has the Prime Directive, right? 😛  But that’s an interesting concept.

It reminds me a little of TNG’s The Inner Light, though it’s actually very different.  Just they both have a dying alien race that wants to be remembered.  Have you seen that episode?

@ariel-ashira

Behold the national anthem Advance Australia Fair!!

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history’s page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us…[Read more]

@seekjustice Haha, you probably did, but that poor guy from Canada had such a hard time I wasn’t sure if it was possible for people who hadn’t seen it to understand.

I found two YouTube videos which include variations on the American man…[Read more]

@rochellaine

I’m sure I did it right, but who knows? Anyway, it was funny. 😛

I wonder if people ever do it on YouTube….

Hey people!  I’m finally here! 😀

@alia Haha, yeah, I guess that’s reasonable.  If Americans are the only ones who do it, someone who’s grown up in Asia wouldn’t be used to it even if you are technically American. 😉

@seekjustice Hahaha!!  I wonder if you even did it right? 😛  You had to just guess from my description, but I don’t know how goo…[Read more]

@rochellaine @jenwriter17 @ariel-ashira

I just called my brother over and told him I wanted to try an American greeting on him. Then proceeded to demonstrate the handshake hug. His response was literally: “What the heck?!”

@rochellaine

Sorry I went to sleep before I could get back to you. 🙂

This is the WW1 short story/novellette thing I was editing a little while ago and telling you about.

Thank you so much!! That would be brilliant 😉

@jenwriter17 Yup.  Apparently it’s only an American thing.  No, I don’t think it’s weird, it was @seekjustice who originally said she thought it sounded weird.  But I guess it would be hard to picture if you’ve never seen it.  I know that it’s actually hard for people from other countries to get because we had a family from Canada stay with us a l…[Read more]

@waterlily yeah. What he said.

@seekjustice Oh yeah, I was thinking about young people a bit older, I guess.  Kids up until they’re about sixteen or seventeen don’t shake hands with each other, though always with older people.  (The older initiates, though, unless there’s a precocious youngster. 😉 )  When they get to their late teens they start shaking hands with each ot…[Read more]

@rochellaine

If you’d rather not though, that’s fine. 🙂 I just thought I’d ask since you seem knowledgeale on the process.

@Rochellaine

Hand shaking just isn’t a thing with youths here, which is a shame because I like shaking hands (it makes me feel powerful since I can make grown butchers wince. I just have to remember not to crush the old ladies). But you can always go for the high five if they initiate it. 😛

I was stalking Jen’s self publishing thread and saw…[Read more]

@ariel-ashira Thank you! 😀  I was so sure, but then, trying as one American to state a fact about our huge country was kind of intimidating and I wanted to make certain. 😛  @seekjustice needs to come to America to see just how normal and not-awkward the handshake hug really is. 😉

@seekjustice Oh my goodness!  The awkward head nodding thing with male friends! 😛  Sometimes the guy is confident and just goes out to shake your hand, but if he’s not sure if you want to and you’re too shy to initiate the handshake, it’s kind of awkward.  Especially if you just hugged his sister or something… 😉

Um…hmm…of course! 😀  Wha…[Read more]

@rochellaine

Well those other greetings are pretty standard here, particularly the fake kissing when it comes to older people. I often shake older peoples hands and hug my female friends and do some kind of awkward head nodding thing with male friends.

Um…hmm…I was wondering if I would be able to ask a favour of you?

@seekjustice It’s about the least awkward greeting I can imagine, for men.  They won’t go in for a hug usually, but a handshake is never awkward.  Then they can show they’re a bit more friendly by adding a half hug on to the end of it.

Women do it sometimes, but it’s mostly a guy thing.  And a guy greeting a woman will usually either shake her ha…[Read more]