For most of Europe that kind of questions are mainly reserved for people you are close to, so asking something like that makes you look awkward in their eyes or even suspicious as if you are trying to warm up to them to manipulate them in some way.
How the hell do Europeans greet strangers on the phone?
"Hello, this is NiggerHater88, I'm calling from TND Inc. Have 5 minutes to talk?"
I will start doing how they are doing after the business has concluded.
Hello this is Theodore_Kent from "organization". Am I speaking with "person you called"? Good. This is about "the issue at hand".
So I ask how they have been at the end of the conversation?
Right.
When we ask how are you, we don't expect a sincere answer. It's a simple greeting, not a real question.
Would "Good, and you?" be an acceptable answer?
Yes. It is expected that you will respond like that even if you aren't good.
Dang. Theo and I are Yankees. You guys would be so confused down south
How so?
In Mandarin the common greeting is "Ni hao." This literally means "You are good." If you ask how to say, "How are you?" it's, "Ni hao ma?" You end up saying, "You are good. Are you good?" Ultimately, you learn that they don't go around asking, "How are you?" If they ask that, then they really think something is wrong. Coincidentally, it is just the words "you" and "good" and works like asking, "You good?" Ma means your statement is a question and the same thing is accomplished in English with tone of voice or a ? on the end in writing.
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