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.