Cultural Greetings

I decided to make this blog about Crossing Cultures, my first year seminar that I had last semester. I really enjoyed it and learned many things about different cultures because of the variety of the people in our class. One of the most interesting things we learned about in that class was that different cultures or societies view our "greetings." 

Many of the authors in the books we read commented on how in the United States  people appear to be more caring than they really are because we say "Hi, how are you?" One author commented that she thought the person really wanted to know how she was and went into a long spiel about her feelings and the other person had a confused look on their face. In our culture, these greetings have become ritualized. We don't think about when we say "How are you?" and we don't expect a detailed answer back. These exchanges have just become habit in passing. So next time you ask someone how they are doing, listen to their answer and lend a genuine ear.