How do you do?
When I had started to learn English in junior high school, the first lesson of the
English textbook is about greeting such as" how are you?", "hello" and "hi" these
formulas.And “how are you” is the most common sentence that shows in the formal textbook.
But when I have had the chance to go abroad to study, what I heard more often is
“how are you doing?” instead of how are you?
So I think the textbook in Taiwan should get with the times of English. That won’t
make students confuse what they learn is different from the authentic language.
Also, “how do you do” is another one that we learned from beginning textbook.
But it seems that we don‘t use this saying a lot in our daily life .
Even we are in the USA, when we meet someone for the first time. We just say hi or
hello, this casual way representing the casual life tempo of American society.
Another greeting saying in the textbook is “how do you do?”
Another situation that we will use “how do you do” is when people do the business.
The business English is very formal and official. So people will say “how do you do”
to show how the cooperative relationship gets along well initially and take it seriously.
Hi. The saying of “Hi” is more colloquial than “hello”.
When we go to the library and would like to check out some books.
The librarian will say “hi” to you to show the friendly start.
Another situation will happen in the daily life here is when we talk with Japanese
students here. We will use “hi” more often than “hello” just to greet them. Probably
it’s because of the using “hi” in Japanese is very common.
Hello
Usually, we use “hello” in these two situations.
First, when we enter a house and would like to know is anybody here?
We would say “Hello, is anybody here? Or hello, is anybody at home?
That’ a start to see whether there are someone here or not.
Secondly, when we answer the phone, we will say hello at first to answer the caller.
That’s the beginning of the conversation. Then, we will develop the topics.
Nelly
