Did You Know?

How To Say "Hello" In 18 Languages For World Hello Day

November 21 marks the 43rd annual World Hello Day! World Hello Day was created in response to conflicts between Egypt and Israel in the 1970s. The peace discussion at the end of the war was the first time that Arab and Israeli officials met for direct public discussion in 25 years. World Hello Day was created by Brian McCormack, a Ph.D. Graduate of Arizona State University, and Michael McCormack, a graduate of Harvard. Since its creation, World Hello Day has been celebrated in 180 countries as a simple way to encourage communication.

It’s easy to celebrate World Hello Day. All you have to do is say hello to at least 10 people throughout the day! To help you along, here is how to say “hello” in 18 different languages.

French: “Bonjour”

Spanish: “Hola”

German: “Hallo” or “Guten Tag”

Italian: “Ciao”

Portuguese: “Olá”

Hindi: “Namaste”

Icelandic: “Halló”

Danish: “Hej”

Czech: “Ahoj”

Greek: “Χαίρετε” (“chaírete”)

Swedish: “Hej”

Polish: “Czesc”

Japanese “Kon’nichiwa”

Turkish: “Merhaba”

Swahili: “Hujambo”

Finnish: “Hei”

Romanian: “Buna”

Slovenian: “Zdravo”

Practice saying hello in any of these languages during World Hello Day, then take your language skills abroad on one of our Perspectives programs!