When I was younger, kids and young people in the USA often said good-bye with the phrase, “See you later, alligator.” The other person would reply, “In a while (or after a while), crocodile.” There was no meaning implied using the terms for the oft scary reptiles of folktales (such as Peter Pan) and wild animal shows. Cultural differences emerged just the other day after a church fellowship meal, when I used the greeting with a young multicultural, English-fluent child. One of the Korean parishioners standing nearby called me out on my use of the term. He was worried the child might be scared or the parents may be offended. We launched into learning curves on all sides of the cultures in the room. The phrase is simply rhyming slang. There is no connection to reptiles. Playful greetings, sayings and plays-on-words exist in many cultures and languages. However, finding matches or similarities is sometimes impossible. Korea has nothing comparable to “see you later, alligator.” At least, not that I’ve been able to discover. I’ve interviewed dozens of people, young and old.