When saying "Good bye," many Russians say "Good Luck!"
We natives never say "Good luck!" when we want to say a simple good bye UNLESS when leaving we might encounter some difficulties:
- "I'm off to the shop" - "Ok, Paul. Good luck!" (wrong)
- "I'm going now. And I have an exam in 5 minutes!!" - Oh, good luck!" (Correct)
In the first example, what difficulties could I face when going to the shop? Get stabbed? Explode? Get raped by a rabid hamster? If the shop is in Afghanistan, then maybe "Good luck!" might be suitable. Otherwise we'd use a simple "Bye!"
In the second example, the listener knows I am to take an exam and therefore wishes me "Good luck!" with the understanding that things could go well or disastrously bad (but I rubbed a dog's nose on a Moscow Metro station so all is fine)
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