Buen provecho! Bon Appetite!
Today, was a nice day to spend some time at the park, the waether was great not too hot, so I went at the park and there was a Canadien girl eating luch, she is a really nice girl and easy to talk with. As a Mexican I have the habit, when I see somebody eating, to say "buen provecho", I think for us it is normal, is a way to be polite when we see sombody eating, I wanted to be polite with her, but then I was wondering: How can I say "buen provecho" in English?, I don´t know! So I asked her, she told me in English there is not a way to say that, Canadien people don´t use to say anything when they see somebody eating and they are not impolite, is just that they don´t have the habit or they use the French expression: Bon appetite!. So, that´s something I learn today about other cultures and the concept to be polite or impolite. Thank you very much for your corrections.
Search from various English teachers...
Corrections · 2
0
Buen provecho! Bon Appetite!
Today was a nice day to spend some time at the park. The weather was great, not too hot, so I went to the park and there was a Canadian girl eating lunch. She was a really nice girl and easy to talk with. As a Mexican, I have the habit, when I see somebody eating, to say "buen provecho", I think for us it is normal, it is a way to be polite when we see sombody eating. I wanted to be polite to her, but then I was wondering: How can I say "buen provecho" in English? I don´t know! So I asked her, she told me in English there is no way to say that, Canadian people don´t normally say anything when they see somebody eating. They are not impolite, it is just that they don´t have the habit, or they use the French expression: Bon appetite!. So, that´s something I learned today about other cultures and language etiquette. Thank you very much for your corrections.
You could say "Enjoy your meal" in English, but as you mentioned, it is not typical. Thanks for the introduction to this interesting phrase. I do wonder what the English translation of "Buen provecho" would be. I looked it up, but the dictionary just said "good advantage" or "good profit", which doesn't make sense. She may be right, there may be no real way to translate this into English. In Mandarin the translation was "eat slowly", which makes more sense (as least in Chinese). In English, we would normally just say "How are you", or simply "Hi", or in Australia, "Good day mate!".
Want to progress faster?
Join this learning community and try out free exercises!
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn a language from the comfort of your own home. Browse our selection of experienced language tutors and enroll in your first lesson now!
Start Learning Today
