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Comment by kmarc

As a young Hungarian, I used to confuse the hell out of my American colleagues when I went to a "lengthy" (more than 10sec) explanation answering to "how are you?"s. It took my a while to realize why that was. Now it just entertains me how oblivious I was.

OTOH I wouldn't call these "fake"; It's common, it's certainly different than how I socialized, possibly it's greatly misunderstood by many. Along the same train of thought, other languages' greetings would also be fake... After all, how could I genuinely wish a random German stranger a "Guten Morgen" or what do I care if "你吃了吗?" (lit. "have you already eaten?")

Let's rather be grateful for these questions not having to be genuine. Chances are high that when you ask someone today how they are (in their health) or if they ate (because there's no food shortage), then they can simply reply with a positive answer.

parent kmarc 5 years ago

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