Outline of the History of England

.....and just so you know - the guy in Braveheart is still alive but he isn't British. He played the part of a sweaty sock but in actual fact, he's a lizard.

@Raspberry_yoghurt - "In our culture, the normal way of greeting new friends was to rush at them like you are attacking"

Thank you for enlightening the world regarding this particular nuance of danish culture. You do tend to look kind of hostile when you're friendly if you don't mind my saying so, but at least I know now that your apparent bad manners are actually in the spirit of civilisation and friendliness. Vive la Kobnhavn and that mermaid of yours.

@Raspberry_yoghurt

When we got education and culture in the 19th century, we realized our greeting custom was often misunderstood, so we asked foreign experts to design a new way of greeting and they changed it to stretch out a hand and say "hello how are you"

The correct and only true way to answer the question "How are you" is: "I haven't got the faintest idea as to HOW I am". Answering the question with "fine", or "not so fine" makes no sense whatsoever.

It depends what "how" means?

adverb
1.
in what way or manner; by what means?:
How did the accident happen?
2.
to what extent, degree, etc.?:
How damaged is the car?
3.
in what state or condition?:
How are you?
4.
for what reason; why?:
How can you talk such nonsense?
5.
to what effect; with what meaning?:
How is one to interpret his action?
6.
what?:
How do you mean? If they don't have vanilla, how about chocolate?
7.
(used as an intensifier):
How seldom I go there!

I guess it is nr 3, so it really means "in what state or condition are you?"

And you can maybe answer "I am rested but a bit hungry"

"to what extent are you?" is hard to answer, or maybe you'd reply "to what extent am I WHAT?" and then the conversation gets going.

Thank you Raspberry_yoghurt, thank you. I was blind, but now I know precisely (if not exactly, maybe, not exactly sure on that one, I'm just being honest, don't hold it against me or anything) how.

@katakamata Where's the chess?

@dunderklumper

Well you are wellcome how!

Dude, that's excellent dude!