Most people get irritated when they hear this question. Why? Of course, not because they do not know how to answer at all. To the question: "What are you doing?" - there is always some answer, but that's not what confuses. Whatever you are doing at this moment, someone else's curiosity takes you by surprise. What should an educated person do? Giving a detailed report, laughing it off, or dropping cool hints like it's nobody's business?
Why is it asked?
Before we learn how to answer the "what are you doing" question, let's think about why people ask it. If this is a telephone conversation, the interlocutor may be interested in what you are doing at the moment in order to find out if it is convenient to talk now, how much time you can devote to him, etc. Then there is no difficulty in how to answer the question “what doing." You can share with a person what you are really doing at the moment: reading, watching a movie, surfing the Internet, or just messing around. Or say, they say, at the moment it’s very busy and you can’tspeak. And if the call is long-awaited, you can safely say: you are looking forward to it.
However, in most cases, this question does not make much sense and is just a way to start a conversation. The English, for example, have the phrase: “How are you?” ("How are you?") - means a greeting and does not require any explanation. If you suddenly begin to describe in detail to the interlocutor the business you are doing, he will most likely cut you off in mid-sentence, since he did not at all intend to listen to a lengthy confession. How to answer the question “what are you doing” in this case?
Punch back
Most popular response: “Nothing special. And you? And then the interlocutor will either get off with a couple of insignificant phrases and move on to the main thing, for which, in fact, he started the dialogue, or he will begin to talk in detail about his affairs. Maybe he called (wrote in a chat) only to speak out, pour out his soul?
Use irony
Answer number two in terms of frequency of use: "I'm talking to you", - or: "You won't believe it, but I'm on VKontakte" (or in another social network where this question was asked). This is enough to support the dialogue. At the same time, you can hint that you are not a fan of formal questions. And for sure - this person will never ask such a question again if you answer that you keep statistics on how many people a day asked you “what are you doing” and “how are you doing.”
Laughter is the best medicine
Third common answerto the question: "What are you doing?" - joke. She can be neutral, kind, or somewhat offensive. To an interlocutor who understands humor, you can say that you are saving the world, hunting wild cockroaches in the kitchen, growing your hair, thinking about the meaning of life, etc. You can also laugh it off like this: “I am thinking about how to rob a jewelry store. Are you with me?”
Make it clear you don't want to discuss this
The fourth way to discourage asking tactless questions is to counter-question: “Why are you asking?”; “Why do you need this information, how will you use it?” After such persistent interrogation, the interlocutor's turn will come to be embarrassed.
The fifth option is to ignore the uncomfortable question. If it sounded immediately after the greeting, then it is enough just to greet in response. If you have already said hello, and the counterpart asks about business, you can safely transfer the conversation in a different direction - share the news, ask about the specific details of the interlocutor's life, and so on.
Review number six - evaluate the "originality" of the question: "Great question! Ask again how to save the world!”
The seventh option is to demonstrate a violent emotional reaction in response. You can simulate shock, shock: “I can’t believe that you are asking me about this!”
Question Depth
It's quite clear: the famous Russian question "what to do" and the annoying greeting phrase "what are you doing" are neither semantically nor philosophically related. The winged question "what to do" worried the bestdomestic minds and hearts dreaming of world justice, truth and kindness. Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky, who put it in the title of his work, did not assume that this problem would not be solved for distant descendants in the twenty-first century.
