How are you? I'm fine, thank you, and you?

Wow, why do all Japanese people know this greeting??? I guess it is from the Japanese English as a Second Language Education system which started a long long time a go and has never really been updated.

OK to start there is nothing wrong with "How are you?" it is a perfectly normal greeting. The problem is that people in North America(Canada and the US) do not really use it that often EXCEPT in formal situations. A more casual way is to say "How R ya?" which I hear is popular in Ireland.

The greeting people use most often is "How's it going?". Which is pronounced "Howzit go-in?".

"How do you do?" Is EXTREMELY formal. Also in UK English it is like the Japanese

A: はじめまして。

B: はじめまして。

People usually use it when they first meet in a formal situation, like this:

A: How do you do?

B: How do you do?

The funny thing here is in the countryside of the US people often use "Howdy" as a way to say hello which comes from the greeting, how do you do~! So a very formal British English expression became a very casual countryside US English expression...

Other greetings are:

"Hello" or the more casual "Hi".

"What's up?" which becomes "Whassup?" or "Whazzup?" and in REALLY casual conversation "'Sup?".

There is also "What's happening?" but this expression is not so popular anymore.

Basically, you should know all these expressions so you understand them if a native speaker says them to you but I recommend you use:

"How's it going?"

Have a nice week everyone, expect another post in 3-4 days!

Phil