Many Japanese learners are curious about how to say “How are you” in Japanese and probably you too.

The word we use is:

Genki

It literally means “energized”. So you might think the dialogue would go something like this:

But in reality, we don’t usually greet each other this way in Japan. If I said Genki to my friend, their reaction might be more like:

They'd likely ask, "Why do you want to know?"

So, we don’t ask “How are you?” like you do in English.

We usually ask if we genuinely want to know if the person is doing okay, maybe after not seeing them for a long time, if they were sick or seemed down the last time we met, or if they just don’t look well.

So, if you saw your friend yesterday and see them today again, it is weird to ask them how they are doing.

But while it's not common among Japanese people, we understand that when non-Japanese speakers use Genki, they use it like “How are you?” in English.

So, if you're used to asking people how they are doing every time you see them, feel free to use it in Japanese.

But remember, it’s not a typical practice among native speakers.

We usually greet as we already learned in previous lessons.

In the morning, we say Ohayō, and in the afternoon or later, we say Otsukare and we don’t really use Genki.

When I talk to Japanese learners, I'm also often asked how to say "How was your day?" in Japanese.

The truth is: This phrase isn't common in Japan either. The direct translation is:

KyōDōdatta?

which breaks down to:

While the meaning aligns with English, we usually ask this only if we know someone had a special event that day, like an exam or job interview.

So instead, we need to be more specific, like school or work.

And you just need to add the context before Dōdatta :