"How are you doing?" vs. "How do you do?"

[Babi]

[Babi]

I don't understand why I should use a question "How do you do?" or "How are you?" to say "Nice to meet you".

[Mitra584]

Dear Torsten,
I have answered 10 questions out of 10 about Responses 2.
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Peace&Love

[Mitra584]

Dear Yankee,
Thanx for your explanation.
_________________
Peace&Love

[Mkostya]

Thank you, it really helps!

[Genoveva]

Very well said Amy. Thanks for that very sound explanation...

[Franck2000]

U ARE DEFINITELY RIGHT

[Betty76]

Hi! Actually I remember hearing "How do you do?" during a job interview on the phone, with an Irishman. I was shocked to hear that :-). Then, in a liaison interpreting course, I was taught to greet people by using that sentence... But I see that in writing this formal behavior disappears. I get emails starting with "Hi" and ending with "Best Regards" by people I don't know and who are definitely English, in spite of all the letter writing rules I had been studying for years. Why is that? Heaven only knows :-)

[Beeesneees]

Hello Betty,

It's because times change and formal letter writing rules are not often seen to be necessary in the less formal medium of e-mails.

(As for the term 'how do you do?' I'm coming late to this thread, but I would say that it has disappeared in all but the most formal of situations in the UK too. The only time I recall ever having used it was when I was introduced to royalty. For other formal situations I use 'Hello, how are you?')
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Cheers m' dears!

[Shahzoda]

Hi Torsten
As I know you speak Russian well. I always explain it to my pupils that it's the same as ' Здравствуйте!' and it should be used for by people when they meet each other for the first time.
Is it correct?

Thanks

[Santak]

Thanks Yankee for such a detailed explanation.

[Torsten]