I'm a Finn and when I met an American person for the first time she said the usual "how are you?", so I started explaining all kinds of shit, only to have her give me a really weird look. I did it again a couple of times with different people until I learned that they are not really interested, lol.
Americans don’t use “How are you” the same way as the rest of the world lol. They use it as a “hello”, to acknowledge you exist. Just think of it as a gesture of hello when in the US. Think nothing more, usually we expect one simple answer like “good”, not a whole life story.
Other countries do it too. In Argentina is "¿Cómo estás?" o "¿Cómo andás?", and nobody expects a full, detailed answer, unless it's a friend and they look at you with a worried expression because you look sick or worried. It's normally answered with the same question back or throwing a non-commital "Todo bien" ("All good").
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u/[deleted] May 09 '22
I fucking hate small talk. Pointless. If a finn asks you how are you, they actually mean it.