The exact phrase is specific to few languages, not universal in the West. The literal translation would work e.g. in Spanish or Serbian, not in French (there the equivalent “(comment) ça va” means “(how) does it go”, I am not sure how a Frenchman would interpret “comment es-tu”) or Polish (“jak sie masz” = “how do you have yourself”, direct “jak jesteś” would be ungrammatical). Each language usually has an arbitrary set of standard questions used for greeting, everything outside the set would likely be heard as genuine curiosity.
Personal experience: I have known that “how are you” and “how do you do” belong to this set for English, but somehow I was unaware of “how are you doing”. Last time I visited Britain some activist on the street tried to establish conversation with me using this phrase, which got extremely awkward when I responded by “sorry?” and after he repeated his greeting, I replied “what exactly do you want to know?”. He must have thought I was a moron.
In Chinese, “how are you?” (“ni zenmeyang?”) is used, but it’s relatively recent (most likely a western influence); previously “have you eaten?” (“ni chi fan le ma?”) was the standard phrase.
I am not sure how a Frenchman would interpret “comment es-tu”
The perpetrator would be suspected of being Canadian.
The exact phrase is specific to few languages, not universal in the West. The literal translation would work e.g. in Spanish or Serbian, not in French (there the equivalent “(comment) ça va” means “(how) does it go”, I am not sure how a Frenchman would interpret “comment es-tu”) or Polish (“jak sie masz” = “how do you have yourself”, direct “jak jesteś” would be ungrammatical). Each language usually has an arbitrary set of standard questions used for greeting, everything outside the set would likely be heard as genuine curiosity.
Personal experience: I have known that “how are you” and “how do you do” belong to this set for English, but somehow I was unaware of “how are you doing”. Last time I visited Britain some activist on the street tried to establish conversation with me using this phrase, which got extremely awkward when I responded by “sorry?” and after he repeated his greeting, I replied “what exactly do you want to know?”. He must have thought I was a moron.
In Chinese, “how are you?” (“ni zenmeyang?”) is used, but it’s relatively recent (most likely a western influence); previously “have you eaten?” (“ni chi fan le ma?”) was the standard phrase.
The perpetrator would be suspected of being Canadian.