Hi, How are you?

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I was in the elevator the other day, when the door opens half way to the ground floor and a perfectly nice lady got on and asked me "Hi, how are you?" Suffice to say, I said hi - without the how are you?

The reason was I never got to used to this greeting in the US - it remains a greeting, not an inquiry about one's health. If you were to say, "I'm fine, how are you?" that would be perfectly pleasant also, but you can't really mean it anymore than than the first inquiry. In other words, two people are wondering how each other are, without really knowing, caring, or in actuality, even asking!

It makes for a strange experience, England. If someone asked you have you were in England, you might fall over backwards in shock. But you'd also be flattered, and a torrent of information would probably spill out about the weather and your creaking bones. In the US, you'd physically frighten someone with a few comments about your health!