¿Qué haces?

Question

Hi,

In my circle of friends, they occasionally ask "¿qué haces?", but not to ask what others are doing. The answer is usually "bien". What would the English equivalent of this interaction be? Here's an example:

-Hola Pepe. -Hola Juan, ¿qué haces? -Bien, bien.

Thanks in advance.

My friends from Puerto Rico say this to ask what I'm doing. Welcome to SpanishDict. - rac1, Nov 25, 2015

We say ,G'day how are you going,( G'day owyagoin) but we do not expect a reply other than another ,oh G'day mate. - ray76, Nov 25, 2015

'sup? :) - Algaman95, Nov 26, 2015

Nutn much. 'Sup w'you? - Winkfish, Nov 26, 2015

Answer 1

Faremoto, people here will often say something like that. Here's a typical example, getting a call on the phone.

A - "Hello?"

B - "Hi, A. Whatcha doin'?" (Which is what "what are you doing" sounds like when you say it very fast)

A - "Oh, nothing much. Whatchoo doin'?(What are you doing?)" or "How are you?" or "What's up?"

Then the conversation goes on normally.

My wife, from Scotland, got so frustrated when she was first here in New Orleans because my friends would call, she'd answer the phone, and they'd ask, "Whatcha doin'?" and she would tell them - "I'm washing the dishes now, then I'm going to do some gardening..." They would reply, "I don't really want to know what you are doing." My wife would say, "Well why did you ask?"

After a couple of months, she got the hang of it.

The same thing is happening to me! What should I respond with, then? "Nada"? - faremoto, Nov 26, 2015