Bonjour!

I don’t speak French.  When it was time to take a foreign language in high school, Spanish seemed a more practical choice where I lived in California.  However, it makes things a bit difficult, each Summer when I head to beautiful French-speaking Switzerland.  Every year, I spend a month conducting leadership workshops and trainings at international leadership camps.  Rough gig, huh?  Everyone in my sessions speak English – so I get to teach in my native tongue.  It’s when I head out into the real world that things get a little tricky.  Even simple tasks such as buying an apple at the market or ordering a desert from a counter are an ordeal when you are unable to communicate.  Sadly, after three years of annual visits, I still get through the day with pointing, pantomime, and finally asking “Do you speak English?”  

There is one word that anyone who spends even a little time in Switzerland will learn: “Bonjour!”  

That’s “Good Day!” in English.

Russ Peak & Family EuropeThis formal greeting isn’t held in reserve for when you enter a store or sit down at the café.  You’ll hear it from everyone you happen to pass.   Men, women,  children,  young,  old… Everyone.   And they don’t just say it.  They emphasize it with  a sing-song happy voice accompanied by a big smile that makes you feel like they really mean it.  This was quite strange at first, especially coming from a country where you can live in a place for a decade and still not know their neighbor’s first name.  But you get used to it.  And taking a cue from the country that Forbes Magazine lists as the #2 Happiest Place To Live, pretty soon you find yourself smiling and presenting your own happy “Bonjour!” to everyone that might cross your path.  It’s amazing!

FAST FORWARD

I’ve been back in the US for only a few days now.  Yesterday my girls and I headed to the beach.   It was my first real interaction with the general public since my return.   While my daughters soaked in the sun, I took a stroll along the shore.   It wasn’t long till I saw another walker enjoying the coast – they were heading right toward me.

She was  about my age casually walking, looking down at the sand as she did.   I got ready to dispense with my best, “Bon Jour!”  when it occurred to me where I was – or where I wasn’t.   I decided that my greeting would likely earn me a weird look.  Even worse, she might stop me and start speaking to me in French assuming that I knew the language.  As the woman came closer I felt nervous and told myself to look down or away and act as though she didn’t exist.  That’s what you’re supposed to do, right?

At the last second, I put a smile on my face and spoke a cheery “Good Day!” 

The words felt weird coming out of my mouth.  It’s the literal translation for Bonjour but who the heck says Good Day?  Not me.  Well, unless I’m imitating Fez from That 70’s Show with his offended “I said Good Day!!”

The woman, however, looked up smiled and said “Good Day!” right back.  It was wonderful to see her transformation from someone who, like myself, was trying her best to not to make eye contact with a stranger into someone wearing the look of happiness and relief that someone else had broken the ice.

For the rest of my walk, as other people passed, I tried other greetings… “Hello”  “Good morning”  “Hi”  Eventually settling back to my original “Good Day!”

Your ‘Hello!’ Could Change Somebody’s life.

GoldenGateBridge

I remember reading an article called Jumpers published in The New Yorker.  One of the lives featured in this piece is of a man who jumped off San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.   Lonely and suffering from depression, he decided to end his own life.  When officials found the note that he’d written and left on his bureau just a few hours earlier, they read the words:   ‘I’m going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I will not jump.’

Not one person smiled.

I’m not saying someone committing on not committing suicide rests in your ability to smile at everyone on the street.  However, a study out of the University of Chicago reports that at any given time at least one in five people  (or about 60 million Americans) suffers from loneliness.  I’d venture to guess that also means that one in five of your co-workers or one in five of your peers at school suffer from loneliness too.  And a simple “hello” or “good day!” or even just a smile might be all someone you come in contact with needs to make it through the day.

“If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re scarce.  If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”

– Zig Ziglar

 

PS – Two notes I want to make: 1) I have signed up for a beginning French Language Class.  When I return to Switzerland in 2015… I’m going to be a little less helpless than usual.  2) I passed the same woman on the way back on my walk.  She said hello and pointed out a few seals that I hadn’t seen that were swimming right off the shore where we were standing.  : )

What are your thoughts on the power of a hello and a smile?   Have you ever had a day when that’s all you really needed from anyone?  We want to know!  Please share your ideas with us in the comments section below.


 

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Russ Peak is recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities on youth leadership and motivation. Every on of Russ Peak’s programs is an incredible combination of award-winning entertainment skillfully blended with a powerful and motivational message that leaves the audience recharged, ready, and eager to take on their challenges. His most popular messages focus on character, leadership, goal setting, bullying, and drug awareness .