How are you?

Hi everyone, so for the first lesson of the month I will answer a question from my comments box "How are you? ---I'm fine. I'm OK. I'm good. I'm not bad. Could you tell me what you feel about each answer.And which answer is normal?".

Well, first off the question "How are you?" is pretty formal. I would usually use it with people I have NEVER met before or in polite/business situations. Before I came to Japan I hadn't used that question in years! With my friends I would usually ask "How's it going?" pronounced "How-zit goin?".

Now, as for the answers all of them are normal but let's look at them in a bit more detail:

I'm great.

This wasn't part of the question but when you are really happy and feel amazing you can say: "I'm great". Even stronger than this you could say: "I'm on top of the world!" ,which I think was in the movie Titanic, if you say this you are feeling terrific! You could also say: "I'm feeling like a million bucks!"

I'm fine.

This is the standard answer in all the textbooks that EVERYONE learns in Japan. It's a bit old fashioned but still commonly used. My big problem with "I'm fine" is that Japanese English speakers could be in a horrible car accident and you'd ask them "How are you doing? Are you ok?" and they would answer: "I'm fine"! I think for many teachers here we get tired of this answer, it is rote learning not communicating--I sometimes do an exercise where students practice answering the question "How are you?" and no one can give the same answer twice!

I'm ok.

This is the answer I usually give, and all the Japanese staff think it's funny I'm always ok. It's weaker than I'm fine and simply means you're feeling the same as usual-today is nothing special. Personally, I find it weird when people give a huge fake answer like "I'm great!" when really they're just fine or ok.

I'm good.

This is technically incorrect or bad grammar, when you say "I'm good" it usually means you are an expert or good at something like the word jouzu (上手) in Japanese. When you say "I'm good" it sounds arrogant so, people usually use good to talk about OTHER PEOPLE. Like, "He's good at golf."

Or, as I said in a recent lesson, it can mean "I don't need anything right now" when answering an offer like "Would you like something to drink?". However, recently in casual English many people will give this answer when someone asks them:

A: "How's it going?"

B: "Me? Eh, I'm good"

meaning they are fine, nothing special is going on with them, everything is alright.

I'm not bad.

This is similar to "I'm ok" you don't feel fine but you don't feel terrible either so you're "not bad". After this you get things like:

"I'm terrible"

"I'm awful"

"I'm horrible"

"I'm sad"

etc.

These kinds of negative answers are fine to give people you know but you shouldn't say them to strangers it is what we call TOO MUCH INFORMATION. You are telling people more than they really want to know. Also if you say something negative, you should probably give a bit more detail---to your friends.

A: How are you?

B: I'm sad, my goldfish died.

A: Aww, that's too bad. How can I cheer you up?

Wow, this took much longer than I thought! That it for now, time to go to bed! Have a nice weekend everyone,

Phil