Greetings, my friend

[GoodTaste]

As the English teacher started with "Greetings, my friend", I smiled quietly because it sounds very old-fashioned and I doubt that today's native English speakers would say it in a daily base.

The question of this thread is whether native English speakers today use "Greetings, my friend" in everyday English.

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Greetings, my friend. My name is ***, and I have been teaching English for more than 13 years. I've taught thousands of students here in China. And their progress really amazed me. However I do know that there are millions of Chinese students who found learning English a troublesome task. Perhaps you are one of them. Perhaps you have learned English for many years, but you still cannot speak or listen or use proper English. Maybe you just feel really frustrated, but I want to help you. I want you to realize that you have the talent to learn English well. All you need is just a correct method and the right teacher. You are free to join my class and I believe I can help you to unleash your talent. So if you want to learn English in a truly effective and efficient way, please join my class and you won't regret it. See you there.

Source: TikTok video titled "(the original is in Chinese and I translated it into English) How to Truly Learn English Well".

[Rover_KE]

The question of this thread is whether native English speakers today use "Greetings, my friend" in everyday English.

Nobody I've ever known does.

[GoesStation]

The whole text is full of incorrect tenses and other unnatural usages — including the opening sentence.

[Piscean]

You were told in another thread:

I suggest you stop watching that man's TikTok videos. Unless you're planning to email him to point out that he is a terrible English teacher (and tell him why), it's a waste of your time and ours.

[GoodTaste]

You were told in another thread:

Here is another man (13 years of teaching E). I've abandoned watching the previous man (who claims 20 years of teaching E).

[GoodTaste]

The whole text is full of incorrect tenses and other unnatural usages — including the opening sentence.

Who would like to correct it? I'd like to see a natural version.

It sounds clear but not very natural to me.

[Piscean]

The whole text is full of incorrect tenses and other unnatural usages — including the opening sentence.

I don't know whether I have developed error-blindness, but the language seems pretty good to me. I certainly would not say it was full of incorrect tenses or other unnatural usages.

[emsr2d2]

I've moved this to General Language Discussions. If you're going to keep posting excerpts from this same man's TikTok stuff, please put it here. You're not really "asking a teacher" anything most of the time. You're simply showing us content that you and we already know isn't good.

[Charlie Bernstein]

I don't know whether I have developed error-blindness, but the language seems pretty good to me. I certainly would not say it was full of incorrect tenses or other unnatural usages.

I agree. It's not perfect, but it's not bad.

For someone whose native language isn't English, he has a pretty good command of the language. So if I were thinking about using him as a teacher, I'd be more interested in finding out about his teaching methods.

"Greetings, my friend" is a little bombastic, but it conveys enthusiasm for the work. There's nothing wrong with that.

[Tarheel]

I always agree with Charlie because I know what's good for me. (Off topic.)


P.S. I would say:

Perhaps you have studied English for many years.