Over time, I have become greatly perplexed by the phrase, "How are you doing?" and its sister phrase, "What's up?" I use both of thse phrases more or less regularly, but they are nonetheless enigmatic to me.
Consider the first: "How are you doing?" Doing what? Walking? I am walking by lifting up one foot and putting it in front of me, shifting my weight to that foot, then repeating the process with the other foot. Breathing? I inhale good air and exhale used air. Oh, you wanted to know what is going on in my life? Why didn't you ask that?
The second is similar: "What's up?" As a child, I was once fond of the obnoxious joke responses such as "the sky" or "the ceiling." For a while, I thought these comebacks were incredibly clever. In fact, I know some people who still think so.
Now, these seem like somewhat odd ways to ask after a person's health and well being, but the part that really confuses me is when a person uses these phrases as a greeting. There are those who ask "What's up?" and not actually expect an answer. What they really mean is "hello." The problem is, there are still a great number of people who ask "What's up?" and want to know what's up, which really means "what is going on?" However, with all these layers of nuance, I am sometimes confused by what a person is actually asking. Whenever I pass someone and they say, "How's it going?" I am forced to guess whether they are actually asking or just happen to be greeting me. Then I must decide whether to answer a question, or just say, "Hello," and move on. The split second I have to decipher the other persons intention is usually a grueling one, and the worst part is, I always seem to choose wrong.
2 comments:
I generally respond with, 'You know'
it's true. It annoys me that people will use the phrase 'what's up' as a 'hello' because usually I'm trying to figure out whether or not they really want to take the time to hear how I really am doing.
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