Hello! Our favourite thing whilst travelling is talking to local people about their country and life in general. I must admit I am not that great at languages, Karen is a lot better than me but learning to simply say hello in different languages can get the ball rolling. Once you have made an effort, people generally respond and then you could be on your way to making a new friend. To help you achieve this we have listed below how to say hello in different languages. If we have left one out, please let us know.

Paul say hello in Chinese
Afrikaans – Haai
Albanian – Ç’kemi
Amharic – Sälam
Arabic – is salām ‘alaykum
Aramaic – Shl’am lak
Armenian – Barev
Azerbaijani – Salam
Basque – Kaixo
Belarusian – Bitaio
Bengali – Nômoshkar (For Hindus), Slam Alikum (For Muslims)
Bhojpuri – Prannam
Bosnian -Zdravo
Bulgarian -Zdravei
Burmese – Min-ga-la-ba
Chechen – Salam
Cherokee – Siyo
Chinese (Cantonese) – Néih hóu
Chinese (Mandarin) – Nǐ hǎo
Comanche – Marʉ́awe
Cornish – Dydh da
Corsican – Salute
Croatian – Bok
Czech – Ahoj
Danish – Hej
Dutch – Hallo
English – Hello
Estonian – Tere
Faroese – Hallo
Fijian – Bula
Finnish – Terve
French – Bonjour
Georgian – Gamarjoba
German – Guten Tag
Greek – Ya
Greenlandic – Aluu
Gujarati – Namaste
Hawaiian – Aloha
Hebrew – Shalom
Hindi – Namaste
Hungarian – Szia
Icelandic – Halló
Indonesian – Hi
Irish – Dia dhuit
Italian – Ciao
Japanese – Konnichiwa
Kazakh – Sälem!
Khmer – Suô-stei
Kiribati – Ko na mauri
Korean – Annyeong
Kurdish – Ser chava ser sera
Kyrgyz – Salam!
Lao – Sába̖ai-di̖i
Latin – Heus
Latvian – Sveiki
Lithuanian – Labas
Luganda – Oli otya
Macedonian – Zdravo
Malagasy – Manao ahoana
Malay – Selamat pagi
Maltese – Ħello
Maori – Kia ora
Marshallese – Io̧kwe
Míkmaq – Gwe’
Mongolian – Sain uu?
Navajo – Yá’át’ééh
Ndebele – Salibonani
Nepali – Namaste
Norwegian – Goddag
Oriya – Namaskara
Pashto – Khe chare
Persian – Dorood
Polish – Cześć
Portuguese – Olá
Punjabi – Sat srī akāl
Romanian – Salut
Russian – Privet
Samoan – Malō
Sanskrit – Namaste
Serbian – Zdravo
Sesotho – Lumela
Sinhala – āyubūvan
Slovak – Ahoj
Slovenian – Žijvo
Somali – Is Ka Warran
Spanish – Hola!
Sundanese – Sampurasun
Swahili – Habari
Swedish – Hej
Tagalog – Musta?
Tahitian – La Ora Na
Tajik – Assalomu aleykum
Tamil – Vaṇakkã
Tatar – Isänme
Thai – Sà-wàt-dee
Tibetan – Tashi delek
Tongan – Mālō e lelei
Tumbuka – Monile
Turkish – Merhaba
Turkmen – Salam
Ukrainian – Ahov
Urdu – āssālam ‘alaykum
Uzbek – Salom
Vietnamese – Chà0 anh
Welsh – Helô
Xhosa – Molo
Yiddish – A gutn tog
Zulu – Sawubona
We hope this list comes in useful and helps breaks down barriers. As I mentioned before, I am sure there are many languages I have left out. If you spot one, please let me know in the comments, by e-mail or social media.
Happy travelling and chatting!
#LoveYourTravels
Paul Farrugia is a an avid traveller and blogger. When he is not travelling he likes to spend his free time reading, going to festivals and sitting down enjoying a nice glass of red! If you would like to reach him send him an e-mail to [email protected]