We Africans and especially in Nigeria where I grew up, we like to attach very big importance to greetings. Even if you are sick and on the hospital bed, you will greet!

Some folks thinks, greeting is a sign of respect. If you didn’t greet people, you are arrogant and rude. You don’t have good home training.

While some see greeting as a means of interacting with each other, others use it as a means to torture other people.

For instance, the moment you have a little misunderstanding with someone, they stopped greeting you. Because probably their greeting adds to your income!

I don’t know why things like this, always happen only in this part of the world. It is not like this in developed countries at all

The one I find funny and sometimes annoying, is the fact that some people think that, it is your duty to always greet them first.

I lived with a neighbor a while ago and even though I was older than her, I always find myself greeting her first in all occasion.

It was like that and I didn’t attach anything to it. But then I started to notice that, any time I didn’t greet her, she never greeted me.

I continued greeting her first each time our paths crossed. She never would greet me first, and would never be cheerful responding either!

The greetings reduced and eventually I stopped greeting her. I wanted to know what her reaction would be, if she would come to her senses.

She didn’t, instead she started telling people who cared to listen, that whenever I see her I wouldn’t greet her.

This is the typical scenario, people come across everyday. You hear, ”that man/woman don’t greet people” did you greet him/her?

Don’t say this person or that person didn’t greet you, when you have never made any attempt at greeting them either.

Greeting people isn’t restricted to any age bracket, saying ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ to people you come across on the street, at work or any public place isn’t a bad idea.

It is the importance we attach to greeting, that makes greeting seem like one big task for some people. They make it look like, they give you life with their greeting!

Greet Sunny when you see Sunny, when Sunny sees you, he will greet you. End of subject!

Do you have a similar story to share?

Source: http://www.chichiuncensored.com

The environment matters,norms and belief .
Some countries you can take sine thing form an elderly one with left hand,even in office it doesn't matter but here in Nigeria na gobe.

There are cultures where the elders greet the younger ones first. If they don't greet you it means they don't recognise you, like the community I live in. When a younger person takes the initiative, you greet them with the response. There is a time when I greeted an old man and he responded with his own greetings. I wasn't sure whether to respond afresh, which I should have.

There are others that have different greetings for men and women. The Masai for example. A man visiting will greet everybody around except the women. The women have to go for a quick laying of hands as they bow slightly and offer their heads toward the elder.

For others, the younger ones have to offer the greetings first.