As a foreigner to the US, not understanding their etiquette. I always trauma dump and break down in tears when the cashier asks: “Hi, how are you today?”
Good. That’ll teach them not to ask such deep questions of a stranger. If they want to get all personal with someone who doesn’t know them, they should face consequences.
It’s more of a British thing, but “alright mate?” is used as a greeting. If someone takes it literally and tells me how they are, then that’s super cool, because it just saves me asking my second question.
That said, on the few occasions I’ve visited the US, I’ve greeted someone with an “alright dude” and they’ve looked at me a bit puzzled like “…yes?” which is cool too.
We should follow the Lithuanian form of greeting your coworkers: walk into the room without making eye-contact and sit impassively at your desk.
If anyone tries to convince you that the day is “good”, nod gruffly.
You can answer honestly but it’s a greeting, not an invitation to take over the whole conversation to talk about yourself.
Them: “How are you doing”
You: “Pretty bad to be honest, but I’m hanging in there”
And from there you either get:
Them: “I’m sorry to hear that I hope it gets better”
You: “Thanks”
Them: “So I wanted to ask about your TPS reports…”
Or :
Them: “Oh no, what’s going on?”
You: “Well I’m having a lot of mental health issues…”
