Not your usual greetings and farewells in Russian | How to say HELLO and GOODBYE in Russian

Some of the first things you learn when studying a language are greetings and farewells. And Russian doesn't make it very easy for us as students. I mean, during your first Russian lesson and you are forced to say: ЗДРАВСТВУЙТЕ! (zdravstvyuyte). "Are you kidding me?!" - you might be thinking. Well, the good news is that there are other ways to say HELLO and GOODBYE in Russian without twisting your tongue or sounding too formal. 

Here are some greetings for young people:

1) Instead of здравсвуйте, say: здрасте, привет, приветик, приветики, здоро́во, хай, хаюшки

2)  Instead of как дела? say: как оно? как жизнь? как поживаешь? как ты? 

And the same with saying GOODBYE. ДО СВИДАНИЯ (do svidaniya) somehow is known even by English speakers who have never had any Russian classes at all. But you don't have to use that one, in fact, Russian speakers don't use it when speaking with friends. 

Here are some other farewells for young people:

1) Instead of до свидания, say: пока, пока-пока, увидимся, до завтра, до встречи, до следующего раза, до понедельника….

2) не прощаемся - We’ll probably see each other later

3) мне пора, я пошел (It's time for me to go, I am going).