About the "How are you?" question

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's useful to have discovered that NAS don't appear to delete 'inappropriate language' in Glaswegian!! Might come in useful, I'll have to brush up on this latent skill! I wonder if it applies to all slang? "Awainbileyerheid ya bam!" LOL this could be fun!  

  • Loollloll. Feckin midden is a bit rude! Saw my cousin call a girl a feckin senga once. Laughed my *** off. Didn't know what it meant. He said "She's drinkin' buckie in a tracksuit, that's a feckin senga!" I pretty much figured it out, lol.

  • No, he wasn't! Scarily, he reminded me of an ex of mine. I wouldn't like to meet him again on a dark night either! 

  • Well my cats head butt me. But that's different I guess. I seem to remember that Begbie was not the kind of person you would want to meet on a dark night

  • Headbutting someone! So rarely an appropriate greeting but I suppose there may be times where's it's prudent or expedient to deploy it as one   : )    

  • I watched and enjoyed Trainspotters but I don't remember what a Glasgow kiss involves! Remind me....

  • Yes, I like the question and like Cloudy Mountain, I find it useful as it gives clues as to how to be with the other person. It's used in different ways in different countries where I've lived. In some countries people take more time when they meet you, to stop and say hello and find out how you are etc and in others, it's used more as a simple yet pleasant way to acknowledge the other person. I generally answer honestly although I've learned over the years, particularly in the UK, that's it's often just a polite way of acknowledging the other person rather than it being an actual question so in some situations, I'll use it as such but it's mostly used by people I know who genuinely want to know how I am and visa versa. I think the other way was in more of a work situation where I found in the uk that people don't tend to stand around chatting as much when they're at work, than they do in other places that I've worked. If I haven't got time, for whatever reason, to hear about how someone is then I don't ask, I would just say something like hi, but when I do have the time, which is most of the time, then I will ask how they are. If I'm not doing too well and don't want to talk about it I would just say so but I tend to isolate if I'm not feeling too good or don't want to interact with other people or if I do go out, I will do my best to avoid people. So yeah, I like the question, I ask it and I like to be asked and when asked, I answer honestly ~ I like to keep it simple :)

  • I'd be fine with the "How are you?" Questions, if people were expecting an answer other than "Yeah im good." or "I'm fine." ...

    I feel like if I could say "Yeah, i'm doing really good, I did this today, and it was good because... (Enter explanation.)" 
    or
    "No, I feel really crappy because.. (Enter explanation)" 

    But people don't want that, they want a short precise pointless answer, that half the time doesn't portray how I fully feel. Then the missed information I didn't give will circle in my head all day.

    I also find a lot of the time, when I'm feeling bad and answering "How are you?" with "I'm pretty ***." People hate that awkward feeling of not knowing what to say, but I don't think they realise that I'm like that in every single damn conversation. 


    Sorry for the rant, this sort of thing is really aggravating for me.

  • My stock answer is usually a mock-weary 'Getting there.'  Actually, it most often isn't mock.

  • 'How do you do' is a greeting though. More like 'pleased to meet you.' I teach all this stuff, including the idea that 'how are you' is a small-talk question requiring a small-talk answer. There are two books by a Hungarian immigrant that really send up the seemingly irrational things that Brits say and so when they greet each other. George Mike's, How to be a brit and How to be an alien. 

  • Yikes, I remember that one from school!! No, that wasn't one of his but I do remember him going through a phase of calling me a "Feckinmidden" but thankfully it didn't last much beyond his revelation that a sister with female friends might be something he could exploit if he didn't "get on her goat" too much  : )  

  • Loolloolll. I hope he went easy on you! Did you have to stop telling him "shut yer geggy" so much?

  • "Gaun yersel wee man!" Haven't heard that in a while!  I remember as a young teenager saying it to my younger brother to 'P' him off when he tried to fight back - usually as he lay on the floor with me standing on him. All good until he got to about 16 and shot up to 6-foot.  

  • Not angry "hevvy ragin", lol!

  • Just thinking about that reminded me that when I did visit Glasgow again for the first time in over 20 years, It was VERY weird to hear the Glasgow accent again and made me realise how much of it I'd lost! I had no idea that my accent had changed over the years but I do remember having to remind myself to speak more slowly when I first moved away purely to make myself understood. I guess I don't speak so slowly when I'm angry  : /   

  • She always used to say "gwan yersell" when the horse racing was on, matter of fact she used to say that a lot anyway. People always had her "hevvy ragin" too!

  • My kids have rarely, if ever, seen me in that mode but they do say that when I'm angry it comes out in the way I express myself: "Gonnaenodaethat!!", "Ahfirfuksake!" and other multi-syllabic utterances that just crack them up. They'd never been to Glasgow until very recently so they extract the Michael from the few words or phrases they hear from me that, according to them, I've invented.    

  • My dad was brought up in Castlemilk until he was 3. He's half-scot. It doesn't hurt too bad if you use the top of your head. Weegie can sound kind of intimidating, lol. My aunt was quite a few years older than my dad and bounced between Glasgow and here for years. She had a very Weegie mode when angry. Her kids did their chores! I love Scotland, I lived near Inverness for a while. Lovely place.

    A Weegie doesn't look like an Edinbugger, lol. Or so I've been told by both.

  • No, no! Not at all, I found it funny - the image in my head of randomly greeting someone with a headbutt made me laugh as I can think of a few people I'd like to surprise like that!