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Can you elaborate a bit on why it's a weird response? What would be more appropriate? Non-native speaker here
by trosi 7y ago
Can you elaborate a bit on why it's a weird response? What would be more appropriate? Non-native speaker here
- barry-cotter 7y agoIt’s quite formal and ritualised in a language whose premier cultural exporter has been quite outwardly egalitarian since at least WWII. It’s just old fashioned. If you’re on this forum you’ve read enough English you’re unlikely to mess up but How are you? Great thanks. You? Fine, fine. It’s scripted insofar as no one cares how the other person actually is and answering I anything other than a positive fashion would be a faux pas but everything after “How are you?” is fluid. You can also go even less formal, e.g. “How’s it going?”
- LambdaComplex 7y ago"I'm fine, how are you?" or "I'm fine, what about you?" would both be more normal in my opinion.