One of the hardest cultural shocks for me to this day is when an American off-handedly asks me "how are you?" at the beginning of a meet and how shocked they seem when I go on to elaborate on how I am feeling -- even it takes me 10-15s they seem to need time to get themselves together because it seems as though I did something outrageous.
Not bashing, let's be clear on that. But this keeps catching me off-guard, every time. Have to work on finally overcoming it. It seems it's an American tradition to say "hi, how are you?" and not just "hello" (namely, it's not a question but a greeting).
I used to have problems with "Hi, how are you?" too.
I found that it can be useful to consider "Hi, how are you?" as a friendly game of catch. At the basic level you can reply "'Sall right, how _you_ doin'?" You've caught the ball and tossed it back. Even if you are walking in different directions down the hall this will work... or even looking up and saying "hey" is acknowledging the ball in the air. In an "office" this probably would work fine, but I have always been either self-employed or worked in small businesses. So I don't know if this would work on the 24th floor.
In day to day life... I imagine the person at the check out counter has a repetitive job that can be quite dreary if all they are doing is punching buttons all day without any engagement... asking the same questions: "Did you find everything?" "Do you have any coupons?" "How are you doing today?" So when I can I try to catch the ball, paint it a different color and toss it back. It's a two part process
How are you doing?
#1 catch the ball:
"I made it this far, I'm gonna keep going."
#2 toss it back:
"How are you keeping up?"
You can have dozens of responses for for each part... mix & match... Silliness can get you bonus points. It's just a game. You will discover ways in which a few words can make it so that you're having a bit more fun, the checkout person (or server, or phone support person, or...) can also get a few giggles while grinding through their, perhaps miserable, job... hey, everybody wins.
I had the same problem for a long time when I was learning English. It was amazing to me that even NO response to “how are you” was acceptable.
My brain has these days taught itself to translate that “how are you” == “hello”, so these days I just answer “hey”, which feels weird but a lot of things do in English. Or if I’m not feeling great, I won’t respond at all, because apparently that’s fine too and the person asking isn’t really asking. (This is why this Fake niceness, in itself, can be depressing)
Even as an American, it took me a little too long to realize that wasn't actually a question. I don't know when it started becoming a common greeting, but it's certainly within my adult years.
Not bashing, let's be clear on that. But this keeps catching me off-guard, every time. Have to work on finally overcoming it. It seems it's an American tradition to say "hi, how are you?" and not just "hello" (namely, it's not a question but a greeting).