10.01.2008

Sneezing

Just sneezed during my federal indian law class - someone said "bless you." And i thought how weird it is we do this - and I wondered what other cultures do when someone sneezes.

I looked it up - my favorite is what the french say in response:

In French polite speech, after the first sneeze, one says à vos souhaits which means "to your desires". If the same person sneezes again, the second response is à vos amours, which means "to your loves." Santé (health) is a more casual response.

You can look up your favorite here.

2 comments:

Paddy said...

From that wikipedia page: "In Korean, a sneezer might say 누가 내 얘기 했어?(Nuga nae yaegi hatseo), meaning "Did someone talk about me?" after a sneeze."

Um...that makes no sense.

(Adam, are all of your posts going to be about bodily functions? If so, I have a few recommendations.)

Greg said...

Is there an obligation to say "bless you" after someone sneezes? People in my office fall all over themselves to say bless you. I never say anything since people are sneezing so damn much around here. Am I "impolite" or "rude" by not rushing to be the first to say "bless you?"