If you get a chance to see the Russian film Brat 2, you can see them mocking Americans for asking people “How are you” in cases where we aren’t actually interested in how the listener is doing.
Still, you will frequently enough hear the equivalent of “How are you doing?”—“Fine, and you?” in Russia. What you see in this film has more to do with stereotypes about Russian culture (interestingly, they have a lot of stereotypes about their own culture); plus, friendship culture is a bit different in Russia than in America, as far as my experience goes.
I don’t know of any culture that doesn’t have these verbal handshake rituals, and I’d be very surprised to learn that they’re not universal. The more interesting question is this: are they universally ambiguous in the way they are in present-day America? I’v heard (form someone with first-hand experience) that they are even more conventionalized in some African cultures so that there is absolutely no ambiguity: you have a standardized question “how do you do?” that is definitely not a question about your condition, and a standardized answer. I don’t know how they actually ask about the other person’s well-being in contrast, though.
If you get a chance to see the Russian film Brat 2, you can see them mocking Americans for asking people “How are you” in cases where we aren’t actually interested in how the listener is doing.
Still, you will frequently enough hear the equivalent of “How are you doing?”—“Fine, and you?” in Russia. What you see in this film has more to do with stereotypes about Russian culture (interestingly, they have a lot of stereotypes about their own culture); plus, friendship culture is a bit different in Russia than in America, as far as my experience goes.
I don’t know of any culture that doesn’t have these verbal handshake rituals, and I’d be very surprised to learn that they’re not universal. The more interesting question is this: are they universally ambiguous in the way they are in present-day America? I’v heard (form someone with first-hand experience) that they are even more conventionalized in some African cultures so that there is absolutely no ambiguity: you have a standardized question “how do you do?” that is definitely not a question about your condition, and a standardized answer. I don’t know how they actually ask about the other person’s well-being in contrast, though.