Published on 12, July, 2020
What do you think about the "How are you?" question?
I, personally, do not like this question and I have never liked it.
I do not know what to answer.
Also, a lot of the time, I think it is expected just to give a positive answer, but I often feel awful to say "Fine!" simply to be polite if I am not fine.
It is pointless to either ask or answer the question, because no meaningful information is transferred. In parts of America, the way that someone usually responds to "how are you?" is to say "how are you" back, and neither party gets an answer at all, even a meaningless one. It's just a greeting like "hello" or "hey".
DragonCat16 said:It is pointless to either ask or answer the question, because no meaningful information is transferred.
Not quite pointless, being that the tonal qualities of the answer serve as an indicator as to whether the answer is actually the case, and if not it allows people to gauge if they and the other person want to further address the underlying issue.
DragonCat16 said:In parts of America, the way that someone usually responds to "how are you?" is to say "how are you" back, and neither party gets an answer at all, even a meaningless one. It's just a greeting like "hello" or "hey".
Where I am in the UK, in the same sense as the USA, I have found that saying in the phonetic sense "Hull-low" quite useful ~ as it is a neutral statement that is likewise responded to without further complications in having to converse.
I say "Hull-low" from the basis of a ship having a full bounty, or payload, as gives the expression a more positive emotional effect. It serves as such then also as a well wishing statement :-)