Don't ask me how I am

In the Philippines, you never ask a person how they are (unless you really mean it).

The Tagalog translation for "How are you?" is "Kamusta?" which literally means "how are you" but used more like "hello" or "hey" or "hi". The question is not meant to be answered. Instead, like "How do you do?" the proper response to "Kamusta?" is "Kamusta?".

Other generally accepted responses to "Kamusta" are:

"Ok, eto." [Ok, I'm here.]

"Ok naman." [Relatively ok, or ok, given the circumstances.]

"Ok." [Ok.]

For a people who speak relatively fluent English, very few Filipinos will say, "Fine." We Filipinos are not "fine" we are, as a nation, "ok".

Americans always ask you how you are. They always say, "How are you?" or "How are you doing?" after saying hello. When "kamusta" is said in English, I am almost compelled to answer,

Pretty good. I had an uninterrupted 7 hours of sleep last night.
The crick in my neck is gone, it was bugging me all of yesterday. Coming over I caught a tram right away, and when I got here, there was a fresh pot of coffee. Yeah, I'm pretty good this morning.

And well... I'm slowly getting a hang of Hong Kong and life over here in general. It's taken me some time, with the laguage barrier and all... ....actually I didnt think it would affect me that much, but it has. Anyway... well there, I'm ok, sort of. Sometimes I wish I had more friends and a support system like I do in Manila, but other times I'm just gushing in happiness over the independence and the anonimity.

So yeah... I guess I'm all right.

You?

But of course they don't want you to answer that way. They want you to stop at "Pretty good" or just "Good". And then you're supposed to show gratitude. The proper response is actually "Good, thanks."

One never responds to, "Kamusta?" with "Ok, salamat."

That's just plain silly.