Words that get on your nerves

The French do it all the time, wishing each other Bonne journée or Bonne soirée or even Bonne fin de journée and Bonnes vacances or Bonne visite or Bon voyage and, of course, Bon appétit.

It's polite and friendly and well meant so why does it sound so irritating in English?

 

I guess the French ones are more "good evening" or "enjoy your meal" or other passing pleasantries. "Have a nice day" seems a bit more of an instruction, somehow, telling you what to do, or nosing in on something beyond the remit of a brief transaction.

 

Yes, @ViewAhead but it's used as shorthand so translates to have a good day/whatever and nearly everyone does it, not just shop staff.

 

@shiney . No. They look a bit embarrassed. And quite rightly so. What's the opposite of cultural appropriation? ( that psssss me off too )
Is there a word for imposing an alien culture in the workplace. The Americans try it. But The staff and customers often collude to make a mockery of it - a bit like "oh no he is/ isn't in a pantomime. The Japanese try it with chanting some sort of motivating mantras in the morning. Good luck with that one.

 

There's a Sainsbury's hypermarket in walking distance. I've been using it for decades and some of the staff have been working there since it opened. I've got to know some of them and we exchange pleasantries. Nothing formulaic. I tend to stick to the checkout staff who understand my system based on years of filling, emptying and refilling the trolley. There's a synchronicity about it. Maybe it could be an Olympic sport.

 

When you use the automated checkout at Lidl, it ends with the voice saying "Have you scanned all your shopping today?" Why did they feel the need to tack "today" on the end?

 

Maybe it sounds less abrupt. I hate those machines with a passion.
I used to do some shopping in Lidl but I don't fancy shopping there since the chicken scandal - even though I didn't buy my chicken there anyway

 

No, they do it in the Welsh style with a blank face as if they've been forced to say it and are fed up with repeating it all day long. It's false and mechanical and after I've heard it a few times it becomes irritating.

That depends on who's saying it, how they say it, and why they say it.
A shop assistant with a blank face repeating it like a parrot to every customer because they've been told to do so makes it insincere, and after you've heard it said like that several times it becomes annoying.

 

@Michael Hewett It's shop staff but also everyone else in all walks of life so not formulaic or company mantra.

Some SM cashiers here clearly have bad days but a smile and friendly greetig from us can lighten things up. @BB3 I go with a list and, with or without OH, have a system so things go into and then come out of the shopping trolley in an organised fashion and then get packed accordingly. Some of the staff now recognise us but others remark upon it, either impressed or grateful that we make it so easy and friendly for them to process.

 

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As you can see from my first comment about this, and also the one above, I was only talking about shop assistants.

 

Waitrose staff went through a phase of asking "And how are you today?" as they started scanning your shopping. These cashiers were teenagers with, presumably, limited psychological training. I used to wonder what would happen if one of the elderly customers had burst into tears and gone on to relate a tale of woe about their life. Maybe one did and that's why the trend was pretty brief.

 

In Finnish any form of "how are you" is a real question where the asker genuinely wants to know.

Oddly, the reply invariably goes "Everything is fine thanks... except..." and then the horrors of the current state of the life of the (askee?) are poured out.

It has taken me a while to get used to the local greeting pattern here (Allright? Yea good, you?). I kind of like it.