Thomas R. Wier wrote:
 >
 > From: Rene Uittenbogaard
 >
 > > Geoff Horswood wrote:
 > >
 > > > The bizarre thing about the greetings is that although they are
 > > > formed as questions, most people (apart from some of the real
 > > > traditionalists from the villages) treat them as interjections
 > > > of the "Hello", "How do you do?" variety.
 > >
 > > While I was working at university, one of the people I worked with
 > > went on a trip to America. He found it very disturbing that so
 > > many people, even the supermarket personnel would ask him "How
 > > do you do?"
 >
 > It's not clear to me why this should be any more bizarre than the
 > use of questions for polite imperatives; Russians, e.g., would find
 > that Western European habit particularly foreign.

In the Netherlands, we don't ask strangers about how they are doing;
and he knew that the supermarket personnel wasn't really interested in
him, they were just trying to b polite.  So he simply found the
question too hypocritical.

 > > So, refusing to answer, but trying to acknowledge that they were
 > > just trying to be polite, he simply started answering
 > > "Thank you" :)
 >
 >  More appropriate would be "Fine, thank you" or the like.

Oh, he knew that. He was just refusing to play his role along.


René