Polite indifference

I overheard a conversation on Shabbos (about philosophy of language), in which someone was saying: “When I am walking on campus, and I see someone I know, I say: ‘Hi, how are you?’ If this is a foreign person, he may start actually telling me how he is, because he doesn’t know that in American culture, saying ‘Hi, how are you?’ is just saying ‘Hello’, and answering ‘Fine’ is saying ‘Hello’ back”.

Of course, I’ve known this for all ten-eleven years I’ve been in this country, and it even makes some sense. But as I was listening to the conversation, I caught myself thinking that I would never get used to this feature of American culture — polite indifference.

(This has nothing to do with forms of greeting, by the way.)