I'm curious about how native speakers actually respond to the simple question of 「お元気ですか。」 I'm currently going into my third year of studying Japanese. My first-year Japanese professor impressed upon us that no matter what, always respond with 「ええ、おかげさまで。」 That always seemed very formal to me. In fact, my second-year professor often responded with just 「はい、元気」 and a Japanese friend of mine seemed surprised when I used 「おかげさまで」 to answer him.
I've done a fair bit of searching around on the internet, and I've seen mixed responses, so I'm assuming it's a very situational type of thing. When would you use 「元気です」 vs 「おかげさまで」 vs some other response?
Answer
As a native Japanese speaker, I have never said お元気ですか to someone I meet almost everyday. You can tell, at a glance, if they are 元気 or not today, if you meet them everyday, right?
お元気ですか seems to me a greeting in letter or in phone call, that is, when you can't see them. You can say お元気ですか when you meet someone you haven't met for a while but still お元気でしたか or 元気だった? sound more natural to me.
Typical responses are おかげさまで and うん、元気 but it is not uncommon to talk about how actually you are/were.
「お久しぶりです。お元気でしたか」
「これは、どうも。実は、この間、風邪をひいて、ひどい目に遭いました。」
「おや、実は私もです。」
In phone call between intimate friends
「元気〜？」
「なんか、夏バテぎみ〜」
「えー、そっかー、そっちのほう、暑そうだもんね」
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