Stop Saying "I'm Fine"

Stop Saying “I’m Fine”

-Morning class! -Hello! Hello! Morning, how are you? - I’m fine thank you, and you? - and you? Yeah! Yeah! Don’t high-five him. Who taught you to say that? Like all of our teachers. Like all of them. Ever.

We need to change this. First we don’t always say “How are you?” We say many different things. For example… We might say “How’s it going?” or “Hey how are you doing?” Australians will often say a mix of this “How are you going?” This one, in the UK, in the U.S. it’s not common to say But Australian English, yes.

And yes you can also say “Oh hi, how are things?” These ones here, repeat with me and pay close attention to the intonation. “You okay?” “You alright?” Of course we miss the “Be” verb here “ARE you okay?” “ARE you alright?”

But it’s very common just to say “You okay?” “You alright?” This confuses Americans apparently because in British English this one is very common it’s very casual “Alright?” It’s just a “Hello” or a “How are you?” it’s very casual it’s normal but if you say this to an American they will be like this “Am I alright? I’m fine do I look sad?” So for Americans that sounds more serious.

You’re asking: “Oh are you sad?!” But for British people no this is just normal it’s fine But remember I said pay close attention to the intonation “You okay?” “Alright?” sounds happy but all of these you would ask to this person If that’s their expression if it’s a normal day, nothing bad happened.

But what if… if your friend looks sad or if you know something bad happened There is a different way you can ask these questions First the intonation. The intonation with these changes Listen… “You alright?” See it does this up/down thing “You alright?” See the intonation goes up and down there “Are you okay?” So it really depends on your intonation how you say them “You okay?” “Are you alright?”

These ones may sound very casual, normal, maybe happy So if your friend looks like this or maybe something bad happened, Let’s ask a different question “What’s up?” or “What’s the matter?” These two questions show concern for your friend You’re asking for details you’re asking about the problem.

And important to note, don’t ask “What’s your problem?” Don’t ask that question it doesn’t sound friendly, it doesn’t sound like you care It sounds like “PFFF! What’s your problem!?”

So, if you want to ask “what’s your problem?” Don’t ask that Ask: “What’s the matter?” That is much better.

Possible answers to: “How are you?” Don’t say “I’m fine thank you, and you?” No! No more! So for British people it’s very common if you’re good to normal to start your answer with “Yeah” For example… This is the more realistic answer, we don’t say “I’m fine thank you, and you” We say “Yeah, good, you?” other ways you can answer if you’re happy or just normal “Yeah, I’m great” “Yeah, I’m good” “I’m pretty good” “Yeah, doing well” “Yeah, doing good” Or if you don’t want an adjective: “Yeah, can’t complain” .

You’ll notice that I haven’t included any extreme adjectives Because we’re British, we don’t do emotions. I’m joking.

But, in British English we don’t typically talk about how great we are .We don’t do that.So if someone asks you how are you and in fact you’re brilliant, you’re amazing “I’m AMAAAAAZING!” You would still say one of these. But less commonly you might hear “I’m wonderful!” You probably won’t hear that but you might “Oh everything is hunky dory!” If you say everything’s hunky-dory it means there are no problems everything is happy and lovely. It’s really not common to hear that Actually if someone says this they’re probably joking or being sarcastic. So just keep that in mind. Also I often hear “so-so” Don’t say this! Never say this! No!

In my life no one has ever said this… I think So it doesn’t sound natural, don’t say it AH! I forgot! oh my god I’m so stupid I almost forgot probably the most important one This might be the most common one “Yeah I’m alright” You can also say “I’m alright” but remember again that is a bit more British “You alright?” “Yeah I’m alright, you alright?” “Yeah I’m good”.

So these ones again they’re more if you feel happy, you feel good, you feel normal But what if you feel not so great you feel a bit sad maybe or something happened.

Remember I said if you’re feeling like this you probably will start your answer with: “Yeah” For example “Yeah I’m good” But if you feel like this probably you will start your answer with: “Well…” For example. And remember we are British we don’t have emotions Even strong emotions, we suppress them because we’re British.

So if you feel bad you are not REALLY BAD You’re only A BIT bad For example “Well I’m a bit tired” “Well I’m a bit sleepy” “I’m a bit ill” We’re British, we like to repress our emotions. Now perhaps something bad happened.

Perhaps you don’t feel good at all “Well I’ve been better” or “I’ve seen better days” These ones they imply that perhaps something bad happened Maybe someone died maybe you just broke up with your partner.

Any combination of this, this looks like a maths problem but you can use any combination of this one for your answer If you feel bad, for example The short way “Hmm not that great” or “I’ll be honest I’m not doing so well” and again you can mix them I’m not doing so great I’m not doing that well you can choose any mixture of these words and that means you feel like this. So in the comments let me know: How are you doing? How is everything? Thanks for watching.