I thought this would be a great little holiday and decided to share it with fellow Esperantists.

The National How Are You Day is a day set aside for the purpose of sharing time with the people you pass by every day, but for some reason, fail to realize them.
Setup with two simple customs, to ask everyone you meet, how they are, and to give an honest answer when you yourself are asked.
Please invite and share this day with all of your friends, and hopefully, we can have a great How Are You Day!

Here's the FB page. I'm not making any money off of it, I just thought it would bring a little more cheer to the rest of the world, and would like to invite all Esperantists to attend [both in the US and international]

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=208573869154...

Also, if anyone is interested in translating, I would be very appreciative. Thanks

Ĉar mi ne estas de la sama nacio, mi rifuzas tiun ĉi festotagon!

(As I am not from the same nation, I refuse this holiday!)



(It's funny how we in the Anglosphere often celebrate these "national (blah) days" even if they're not really from our own nation. I think deep down inside we keep forgetting that we're actually not from the same nation )

If you're all speaking the same language, in writing, and if there don't happen to be any words used with different spelling or grammar, then how could you possibly even know if someone was from a different English-speaking country?

Because if you're together in person, it's pretty obvious, but online it isn't obvious at all.

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One problem with National How Are You Day - most people in the US use "How are you?" as a greeting, not expecting an answer. The expected answer would be "How are you?", or perhaps "Good, how are you?", even if they are not actually doing well at all. Most people ask "How are you?" in the US without expecting to actually hear how you are, and if you start to tell them, they are surprised and taken aback. I had an Italian roommate in school who was greatly confused when she would run into friends on campus, and they would ask "How are you?" and then start to walk away before she had a chance to tell them. I had to explain to her that they mean it only as a greeting, not as a real question, so you're just supposed to say "Fine, how are you?" or just repeat the question and keep walking.

erinja:I had an Italian roommate in school who was greatly confused when she would run into friends on campus, and they would ask "How are you?" and then start to walk away before she had a chance to tell them. I had to explain to her that they mean it only as a greeting, not as a real question, so you're just supposed to say "Fine, how are you?" or just repeat the question and keep walking.

This is one of my greatest pet peeves. I only ask people this question if I both have an interest in their genuine response and also have time to hear it. If both these conditions aren't met equally, then I don't ask.

Sorry...that didn't really add anything, but I couldn't resist.

This is kind of why I wanted to create this day. I'm tired of every time some one asks you how you are over here, they simply walk away. It's like saying: Hi, I just want to ask you how you are so I can feel good about myself, but I don't want to actually hear your problems because they'll bring me down??? What's up with that? As for the guy from GB (I'm assuming) I did say international on my post. Just in case, I will change the title on the FB page.

ki4jgt:This is kind of why I wanted to create this day. I'm tired of every time some one asks you how you are over here, they simply walk away. It's like saying: Hi, I just want to ask you how you are so I can feel good about myself, but I don't want to actually hear your problems because they'll bring me down??? What's up with that? As for the guy from GB (I'm assuming) I did say international on my post. Just in case, I will change the title on the FB page.

Yep. That's how I feel.

And if you're referring to ceigered, he's actually Australian. I think he was referring to the title of this thread, which says "National How Are You Day" rather than "International..."

Except than when you tell these people "How are you?" on (inter)National How Are You Day, they will just say "Fine, and you?" because they are assuming that you're giving them the standard "How are you" that only means hello.

Here in Argentina, the question is "¿Cómo estás?" or "¿Cómo te va?", with the same meaning of "How are you?", and people also don't expect an answer; it's just a greeting.

Some people answer with a touch of humor: "Bien. ¿O querés que te cuente?" = "Fine. Or do you want me to tell you?"

Regards,

Daniel

erinja:
One problem with National How Are You Day - most people in the US use "How are you?" as a greeting, not expecting an answer. The expected answer would be "How are you?", or perhaps "Good, how are you?", even if they are not actually doing well at all. Most people ask "How are you?" in the US without expecting to actually hear how you are, and if you start to tell them, they are surprised and taken aback. I had an Italian roommate in school who was greatly confused when she would run into friends on campus, and they would ask "How are you?" and then start to walk away before she had a chance to tell them. I had to explain to her that they mean it only as a greeting, not as a real question, so you're just supposed to say "Fine, how are you?" or just repeat the question and keep walking.

ki4jgt:This is kind of why I wanted to create this day. I'm tired of every time some one asks you how you are over here, they simply walk away. It's like saying: Hi, I just want to ask you how you are so I can feel good about myself, but I don't want to actually hear your problems because they'll bring me down??? What's up with that? As for the guy from GB (I'm assuming) I did say international on my post. Just in case, I will change the title on the FB page.

As UUano said, I'm an Aussie (although I am still a subject of her Majesty the Queen and am a first generation Australian thanks to an English immigrant parent, so good guess considering many of we Australians don't know the difference between an American and a Canadian!)

But I was just referring to the title of this here thread ("National How are you day") and wanted to be a bit of a rascal.

I can completely relate to this though. I mean, if someone said "Saluton/Sal'/Hej, kiel vi fartas amiko?" I'd reply "Ho, fartas bone, kaj vi?" etc. But in English, where I hear how are you I immediately don't know what to say when I can see clearly that the other person isn't actually able to stick around for a proper response, so I get torn between saying "Hey how are you" which sounds weird (it's like ignoring their question and giving it right back to them - Return to Sender ), or actually saying "ah good thanks", and running out of time to ask them back so it's as if I don't care (well, I probably don't care, but that's beside the point! ).

How on earth this became a non-question greeting though in English (and Spanish evidently seeing what Danielcg's written), I'd like to know! (and Danielcg, that is a great answer to it!)

I actually heard about this from someone in aussie. They spoke on it very shortly. I thought it would be a great idea and ran with it. Of course they were talking about how many people commit suicides every year and how most if not all suicides are related to people feeling alone and not knowing what to do next. Then they started talking about all we think about is ourselves (Bringing in the question as to why we never answer someone when we're asked how we're doing - We're no longer expected to) we merely are asking them how they are to say that we're nice people, but when it gets down to it, there's nothing nice about it.

I don't know. Those are just some of the points that this guy covered as to why he thought society had become so focused on itself and not caring about others. He also went into detail on why he thought people were responding to others in shock when someone actually expected them to answer the question. Appearantly, we've been programmed to do so. . . Anyway, I'd better get off of this topic. I just thought it would be a great thing to actually turn it back around and maybe ask people how they were and actually expect them to say something besides the answer to all "FINE"