Simple question for Monday

[muckefuck]

What is your favourite response to "How are you?"-type questions?
What response(s) would you wink out of existence if you could?

Comments

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

"I can't complain."

For me the standard "I'll tell you I'm fantastic even though I'm very much NOT" is something I could do without. Why lie right from the opening question? Set phrase or not, it seems disingenuous.

(Mind you, I still prefer it to the Japanese opening question どちらへ？, Dochira e?, "Where are you going?", which is a stock question asked even if you honestly couldn't care where the person is going.)

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

Somewhere unreliable, I heard that a classic greeting in China is "have you eaten yet?" If that was a genuine enquiry, I'd prefer it to any of these 'wotcher' equivalents.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

你吃飯了嗎?

Our Chinese teacher was a little taken aback to find we knew about this, because she considers it a rather familiar question--something you'd ask a friend you see regularly but not a social superior, apparently.

The Korean equivalent is 밥먹었어요? and it's also very casual and familiar. There's also a Japanese version.

Whenever this comes up in discussion, there are always some younger American English speakers who have to point out the homegrown version: "Jeet yet?"

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

Ha, this reminds me of the infamous (probably apocryphal) line with which unwelcome visitors are greeted in Scotland: "You'll have had your tea."

[oh-meow.livejournal.com]

Is it standard in the US to say "great, thanks" even if you're feeling crap? A standard answer in the UK is "alright, thanks" which pretty much means nothing, because it can mean both awful and great.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

The only polite answer, according to Miss Manners, is "Fine, and you?" If someone wants more detail, they will say rather, "Now, tell me; how are you really doing?"