How to ask "What are you doing?"
When I speak to my relatives on the phone and I ask "Τι κάνεις;" to mean "What are you doing?" they think instead that I am asking how they are. Since τι κάνεις means both, how do you ask in Greek "What are you doing?" without it being heard as "How are you?"?

Question

Answer

Hello Justin. You made a very good question. Let me explain.

In Modern Greek "τι κάνεις" means: a) What are you doing b) How are you. So it's an ambiguate question.
That's why among the native Greek speakers it's very common that when you are asked this question you answer both:

Α: Τι κάνεις;(=What are you doing+How are you?)
Β: Καλά είμαι, διαβάζω.(=I'm fine! I'm studying right now)

Sometimes even when we want to ask the other person only "What are you doing"  due to the ambiguity of the phrase the other person thinks that we are asking only "how are you":

A: Τι κάνεις(=What are you doing?)
B: Καλά είμαι(I'm fine).

Then what do we do in this occasion to solve the ambiguity? We need specify:

A: Τι κάνεις(=What are you doing?)
B: Καλά είμαι(I'm fine).
A: Όχι, εννοώ τι κάνεις στην πραγματικότητα!(=Νο, I am asking literally what are you doing!)
Β: Αααα! Διαβάζω τώρα!(=ohhh! I am studying right now!)

Kind Regards,
Stergios Efes

Answer

It would be better to say "Τι κάνεις τωρα;" in order to be more specific.

Answer

Justin also in Greek how are you means Pws eisai which literally means how are you feeling .Ti kaneis it is a question which means what are you doing now but also you can use it with the how are you feeling .So if you want to be much more specific ask them what are they doing during the week or now such as : Ti tha kaneis meta- what are you doing later .

Answer

I think "Τι κάνεις;" is fine for that purpose. Depending on the answer that you'll get back, you can specify later what do you mean.