I was talking to this German guy while waiting at the dentist office today, and one of the dentists said "hello, how are you?" as she was walking by, and the man said "I do not understand why people ask how I am doing when just passing by, we don't do that in Germany." or something along those lines. It came off as rude to him to ask in passing, because he would be ready for a full conversation when we just use it as a stop-go deal.
I agree with him, I think "Hi" should suffice. It seems this is purely an American convention.... We do it in Morocco too, though it's usually used to initiate a full blown conversation in the street. xD
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