What do you say when people ask you how you're doing?

[Velvis]

"Doggie style"

[Bungo the Mungo]

Up here the local greeting is "Hiya, how you doing, alright?"...nobody really wants to know the truth...I didn't know that as a fresh faced 20 year old first moving to the area but I soon found out after about a week

Yeah, or 'alright?' responded to with the same word. Or just 'yeah, you?'.

[Arthur Crud]

I went for the generic answer but for the last 3 years my generic answer has been "decidedly average" without expanding on that theme.

[sloopjohnc]

I've found no one really wants to find out how you're really doing.

That's not true.

For friends maybe, but not the guy at the liquor store or the clerk at the supermarket or some random person at work. I'm speaking in general terms. I might tell the guy at the corner store where I buy my smokes that I'm tired or it was a shitty day, but nothing more. Most folks would look for an escape route if you did, and fast.

But what you write is interesting although I don't agree. Someone you know, Anna, a good friend of mine, is outta work. I've been trying to plan a weekend with some old friends and he doesn't want me to tell them what's going on because he doesn't want to go into it.

He quit his last job because he was so unhappy, but when I'd call to check in on him, he'd tell me he was fine. It was only after I told him that I had gone through the same bad patch and quit too, that he told me he'd been outta work for a month and gave me the straight scoop.

When I thought about it, I realized my buddy is like my wife. On the outside, they're very friendly and seem open, but it's just because they're good listeners and would rather not talk about themselves.

[mentalist (slight return)]

How are you doing and variants thereof has become the salesman's opening line. Whenever someone calls on the phone and the first lines are "how are you", it's almost always time to hang up.

[sensi]

Up here the local greeting is "Hiya, how you doing, alright?"...nobody really wants to know the truth...I didn't know that as a fresh faced 20 year old first moving to the area but I soon found out after about a week

Yeah, or 'alright?' responded to with the same word. Or just 'yeah, you?'.

Oh aye, the "yeah, you?" thing is almost the same...as in you're about as interested in how they are as they are about you

[Insouciant Western People]

Nae bad

Variations on that are the norm throughout northern England and Scotland. Back home on Tyneside the usual is something like "Aye, not too bad pal", or "Ah'm areet mate, hoozyersel ?"

My Grandad always greeted people, no matter who it was, with "Aye aye Geordie, what fettle ?"





Around Derbyshire (where I used to live) it was "Eh up me duck, how you doing ?" In Lincoln it seems to be a simple "Alright ?"

[Brin]

A young man on the till at Sainsburys asked me how I was doing today
I replied....
Got those sit-down,
can't cry Oh Lord,
gonna die blues.
he looked a bit dumbstruck so I explained it was some lyrics from a song.

[GoogaMooga]

I don't like any of this "how are you" business, it's just an empty formality. The one exception is the British, "Alright?", which just warrants a simple yes or no answer. I mean, you have to follow up on the ice-breaker with something more substantial anyway, so why not cut to the chase immediately?

[GoogaMooga]

I have a friend who always manages to say "And you?", as if he replied, before you ask him "how are you?". Very disturbing!

A pre-emptive strike!

[Phil T]

I have a friend who always manages to say "And you?", as if he replied, before you ask him "how are you?". Very disturbing!

A pre-emptive strike!

Equally good is phoning someone up and saying "yes? what did you want?"

[Quaco]

Do you sometimes find yourself answering the wrong question: "How are you?" "Ah not much." or "Hey man, what's up?" "Fine, how are you?"

[sloopjohnc]

Do you sometimes find yourself answering the wrong question: "How are you?" "Ah not much." or "Hey man, what's up?" "Fine, how are you?"

It's 9:24.

[Minnie the Minx]

I'd have to know someone really well to tell the truth if life was crappy.

[Charlie O.]

^ Yes.


Not that Quaco asked, but my favorite answer to "What's happening?" is one I appropriated from Thelonious Monk: "Everything's happening, all the time."

[Flower]

I automatically respond with ... "Great! And how are you?" ... I trail off with "Have a great day!" ...

Most people mean well, some are nosy .. etc.

I only confide in people that I trust and basically, while I have empathy, I can't take on the problems of the world but will listen and try to give hope/advice/ cheer as needed, if needed.

[Samoan]

I generally grunt.

[C]

Always 'I'm fine'

Folk, even family, don't want to hear repeated details of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, stem cell transplants and bone strengthening infusions and their side effects.

Just bloody well get on with it!





.

[Brickyard Jack]

I usually say that I am coping.

[Minnie the Minx]

I’m sorry to hear you’ve been through it C. That’s rough as shit. Hope you’re doing better soon.