Jobs!
... Today I met my students for the third time. It was nice to see them again. So I told them it was nice to meet them.Maybe I'm part of the problem
I know this is an age-old debate, but I really don't see what the problem is. Yes I understand that "Nice to meet you" is a Western idiomatic sentence fragment, but they're not making any literal errors. They are meeting you. Plus, it's a nice quirk and it always makes me (and them) smile.Perhaps it's just my (UK) English, but I meet my friends after school, I meet my significant other at weekends. To say "I'm going to see my friends tonight" just sounds wrong to me. Today I met my students for the third time. It was nice to see them again. So I told them it was nice to meet them.Maybe I'm part of the problem
Quote from: stucoe on March 20, 2013, 03:36:31 PMI know this is an age-old debate, but I really don't see what the problem is. Yes I understand that "Nice to meet you" is a Western idiomatic sentence fragment, but they're not making any literal errors. They are meeting you. Plus, it's a nice quirk and it always makes me (and them) smile.Perhaps it's just my (UK) English, but I meet my friends after school, I meet my significant other at weekends. To say "I'm going to see my friends tonight" just sounds wrong to me. Today I met my students for the third time. It was nice to see them again. So I told them it was nice to meet them.Maybe I'm part of the problem The problem is they're saying ''Nice to meet you'' every time they see you. You wouldn't say that back home to friends or someone you've already met, would you? ''Nice to meet you'' is what we say the FIRST time you meet someone. I know this is confusing to Koreans but I think it's useful to try and explain where they're getting it wrong. I explained to my co-teacher the other day that ''Take a rest'' is a really awkward sentence too, and something that native speakers don't say. I suppose it's better than ''Glad to meet you''. I've never heard ANYONE say that EVER yet it's all over the textbooks I use. It sounds grammatically wrong as well. Grrrr
Personally, I'm okay with: Glad to meet you. Nice to meet you. Happy to meet you. And pleasure/pleased to meet you. The first week of classes I introduced the phrase "What's going down?" as a substitute for "How's it going?" It has stuck with one student, who always says, "What's going down?" when she sees me. I'll chalk that up as a win.
I know this is an age-old debate, but I really don't see what the problem is. Yes I understand that "Nice to meet you" is a Western idiomatic sentence fragment, but they're not making any literal errors. They are meeting you. Plus, it's a nice quirk and it always makes me (and them) smile.
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