Three golden rules of the Schwaben (south-west germans):
1. That won’t work.
2. We never did it that way.
3. Anyone could come in here… (you’re a nobody)

You would not consider asking that a superior at work or a person of higher standing you just met. You are of lower standing and if he wants to know he will ask you. A short reply of ‘Danke sehr, es geht mir gut’ will do.

Now, on the other hand meeting your neighbors will almost always entail that question and can be answered with more than the standard answer.

I also found that here in America people sometimes give you a short glimpse of how they are really doing, which I like to hear.

I really miss the honesty of what people say. Like you said at the end of your post. It’s really confusing for Germans who are newbies here to figure out that “Talk to you later” doesn’t mean, “later” but in a few days or months or maybe never again.

Gruesse aus Oregon!

First of all, “Wie geht’s?” is of course a phrase used in Germany, but the difference to the American version is that it is a sincere question. To me “Hi, wie geht’s” would be an invitation to start a longer conversation, whereas in America, we would ask “hi, how are ya?” and walk on by without waiting for the response.

I don’t know where you are in Germany, but I can’t think of a region where adding on “wie, geht’s” to the standard greeting sounds natural. i.e.

Servus, wie geht’s?

Grüss Gott, wie geht’s?

Moin moin, wie geht’s?

Mahlzeit, wie geht’s?

It all sounds pretty unnatural. The best I can come up with is “Na, wie geht’s” but that’s a legitimate question, not a greeting.

I notice my American friends, when they speak German asking everyone “wie geht’s” all the time and it sounds pretty goofy to me.

But hey, I could be wrong…