Geeze I'm Fine!

In England, you are not addressed with a "Hi, how are you?"; "What's up?"; or even "What's goin' down?". Here you are greeted with a "You alight?" Now, the immediate response of any American is to get defensive and declare in no uncertain terms, "Yeah, I'm fine!" For some reason we assume the English are challenging our state of being. When people say "You alright?" in America, they mean "You look awful"; "You are not doing so well"; "I knew you weren't up for this"; or some other kind of upsetting assumption. All os us US girls in the UK know it is as harmless as "Hi", but we still get a little upset each time we hear it.

heh- culture eh? Who knew it would be so weird?