# Why do people around the world respond to sneezes?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-around-the-world-respond-to-sneezes/688081>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 9, 2014, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-around-the-world-respond-to-sneezes/688081 "2014-05-09T20:16:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-around-the-world-respond-to-sneezes/688081/21 "2014-05-13T07:46:23Z")

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Also, just because some countries have entries in the list doesn’t mean it’s a common practice.  
I’ve been living in China for a year and I’ve never heard anyone remark on a sneeze. A spectacularly loud one may get a laugh. That’s it.

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**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-around-the-world-respond-to-sneezes/688081/22 "2014-05-13T17:10:49Z")

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When I hear someone sneeze, I say, “Can I quote you on that?”

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**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-around-the-world-respond-to-sneezes/688081/23 "2014-05-13T17:43:19Z")

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> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> I suggest that we Dopers use this thread to suggest some _really silly_ ways to respond when someone sneezes.
> 
> How about, when someone sneezes, one should say: “Got snot?”

I often say, “did you get any on you?”

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-around-the-world-respond-to-sneezes/688081/24 "2014-05-14T07:05:31Z")

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> [@phi2dao](#):
>
> I can’t tell you why responding to sneezes is so common, but I can back up the list’s lack of an entry for Japanese. After someone sneezed in a Japanese course I was taking, all us students said “bless you,” paused, then turned to our professor to learn how one says such a thing in Japanese. She thought for a moment then told us that there wasn’t any such saying and that one just doesn’t really respond to sneezes in Japanese.

I was surfing YouTube videos recently and stumbled on some jvlogs–video blogs about living in Japan. I learned that, in Japan, the polite thing to do with any sort of interruption is to ignore it. This includes small things like bumping into people to larger things someone sobbing profusely on an otherwise silent train.

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