Saying Hi

In such a situation as the one noted above, it would not be wise for black to say "hi" or even "hello" to his/her opponent. White is clearly either a sandbagger or a buffoon and so encouraging communication would surely be an unwise strategy.

It would seem that white is winning in this example and that black has made a desperate mistake, however, closer inspection will find that Black is actually ahead by 30 (moral) points. White has mistakenly failed to answer black's "hi" and will subsequently be left with no other option but to resign in shame.

(A similar example from a KGS game: http://files.gokgs.com/games/2006/10/30/JMEdwards-Dothack.sgf)

The one exception is yahoo's go server. If someone were to say "hi" to you there then your best course of action would be to resign in disgust.
So what of the language in use? How should we go about choosing? The simplest answer would be that every player uses his/her native language, but this rarely seems to happen. Instead everyone says hi, except the French who always say "bonjour/salut", as they don't want their beautiful language being sullied, and who could blame them? Perhaps a kindly soul could put a list of "interntational hi-s" in order to aid international friendship.

international hi-s
English hi/hello
Japanese onegaishimasu/ konnichi-wa
Chinese ni hao (你好) // nin hao (您好) - respectful "you" // nimen hao - plural "you"（你们好） // dajia hao - "everyone"（大家好）
Korean an nyeong (안녕)
Spanish hola/saludos
French bonjour/salut (not!: salut salaud) there was a typo
Polish witaj/dzien dobry
Esperanto Saluton
Russian zdravstvuitye/ dobri dyen/privet
Northern German: Moin moin
High (Middle) German: Tag/Guten Tag
Southern German: Grüß Gott (wenn Du Ihn siehst)
Freistaat Bavaria/Austria: Servus (deep voice necessary)
Hollandia: Gooie dag (d���g , when you go away; also : dooei)
Belgi� (Belgium): Goede dag/Hallo/Hoi (you can use the Holandia greetings, but in most cases, they won't be appreciated)
Danish: Hej
Hungarian: Szia
Turkish: Selam
Greek: Geia/Kalispera

minordemon: What is Hollandia? Do you mean Nederland (the Netherlands)? If so I would advise to use the Belgian terms, which are propper Dutch. The Dutch are quite informal, so you could start with Hallo (neutral) or Hoi (informal). Goede dag is usually a bit too formal.

tderz: How is that: ?
,
, (very practical on Servers other than Senseis)

I think the best thing however would be to start a trend of typing an international internet go greeting. Some clever chap or chapess could think of such a symbol and we could all use it.

Hu: Type something reasonable like "Hi" or "Nihao" or "Kon" or "Salut" and it will likely be interpreted in a friendly way and responded to as such with a similarly reasonable greeting.