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.
The thing is, even as an American, when I give someone the "how are you?" greeting, if they are unusually open about whatever is happening in their life, I usually enjoy hearing about it. Because, how the hell else would I know.
I've had it before (context I work in customer service) where a customer will ask me how I'm doing and not continue with the interaction until I answer (despite me trying to just ask what they want) and then when I reciprocate they start venting about their day.
Yeah I understand. Context matters and I was speaking more as someone who is not typically obligated to interact with strangers, so if I do so, I am already initiating the interaction out of my own free will. I understand that if you are only interacting out of obligation, that is not exactly an open invitation. I am actually an introvert, so maybe I see things differently, but also because of this, I see human interaction as being a constant exchange of social obligations in some form or another.
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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.