I had the same problem for a long time when I was learning English. It was amazing to me that even NO response to “how are you” was acceptable. My brain has th

I had the same problem for a long time when I was learning English. It was amazing to me that even NO response to “how are you” was acceptable. My brain has these days taught itself to translate that “how are you” == “hello”, so these days I just answer “hey”, which feels weird but a lot of things do in English. Or if I’m not feeling great, I won’t respond at all, because apparently that’s fine too and the person asking isn’t really asking. (This is why this Fake niceness, in itself, can be depressing)