Hahha quite liked this article.....

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/trav...#ixzz1z2pg9Mvv

With this being my favourite entry......

"How's it going?"

This has to be up there with the American "what's up" as the most nonsensical greeting around. How's what going? I remember a few exchange students at uni talking about this, saying, "It took me a while to realise that Australians don't actually want to know how you are going. They just want you to say 'good'."

Surely that should be "How ya going?"

Not so different to the Geordie saying "ya areet" and "aye champion" is the reply it's just a greeting, no one really wants to if your piles are playing up

i've heard 'how's it going' in the US and canada many times.

Absolutely. "How's it going?" is a North Americanism, where "How ya going?" is Australian.

I remember the first time someone said that to me. I was waiting at the bus stop so I answered "By bus. You?" He looked at me like I had 6 heads.

I'd take 'How's it going?' as meaning, hows life in general going..

I'v been saying it for years and I'm English.

Ditto.

Awesome!

I remember a foreign exchange student talking about how she had to figure out that this was just one of those rote social niceties that means nothing and stop answering with, "Well, I have a bit of a cold," or "I'm tired and have a headache."

Agreed.

I've been hearing/using "how's it going" before going to Oz.

First job in Oz, someone in the office asked me at 6pm, "How ya going". I said "I'm going home" and he laughed.

I did have to laugh at the weather denial bit.

It was 13C in Melbourne at lunchtime and the 'feels like' temperature was 6C with a stiff northerly blowing but a handful of people were sporting bare legs and thongs.

Some people here feel that if they don't acknowledge it's winter at any stage then they can pretend it never happened.

The same works on the reverse side of the coin and is even more common where people in Melbourne dress up in overcoats and scarves like it's Moscow or something as soon as the temp drops below about 18C.

I believe that you are allowed to say something along the lines of:

'Not baaad - for an old fellar!'.

I sometimes say this in an old man voice and it always get a laugh.

I say 'how's it going' all the time - I had no idea I was multi-lingual

It's only the more relaxed form of the British 'how are you?' which is rarely demanding a genuine answer.

And I left Oz 23 years ago but I still say 'chucking a uey' - that one sticks with you. I love the fact that the Aussies shorten everything - it suits my lazy sensibilities perfectly

Whether you say it or ya, you've all got it wrong it's not going, it's garn.

I've never been a fan of the Australian customer service introduction of "How are you today?"... As if the questioner has some kind of reference to compare todays response with other days. There's always much confusion if I answer with "Same as yesterday really" - or even more confusion if I ignore the linguistic inflation of the vernacular and respond with "Average." or "Ordinary"