People say hello in lots of interesting ways.
In the UK, we say, “You alright?”
To reply, one says, “Yeh, alright. You good?”
In North America, we say, “How ya doing?”
This small difference caused me to get a lot of funny looks on my travels.
Whenever I asked a North American, “You alright?” a quizzical — and often alarmed — expression would run across the person’s face, and they would give themselves a quick body scan.
”Why — do I look OK?” they would ask, quite concerned.
When people in North America first started to ask me, “How ya doing?” I would tell them.
They were rarely expecting it.
Eventually, some busy soul — after politely waiting 15 minutes while I explained why my roommate’s cat was responsible for my exhaustion — told me that in North America, “How are you doing?” just meant hello.
It didn’t mean the person actually wanted to know how you were doing.
If wanted to know how someone was feeling, perhaps if they looked under the weather or in need of help, one would ask, “Are you alright?”