This totally bothered me too, at the beginning. Took me a few weeks to understand that &quot;Hi, how are you&quot; is the American <i>equivalent</i> of &quot;Hey&quot;, &quot;Hello&quot;, &quot;Good Morning&quot; etc from other countries&#x2F;culture. It seems rude, but it is just a habit than being intentionally rude. It sure is confusing to foreigners when we move here.
But yeah, it would be nice to just say Hi.