What does it mean when Americans say "We love you" in an email? [closed]

I was just having an email conversation with 3 of my community advisors and they said "We love you". I found that weird?

The community advisors teach me about how to behave in America and what the culture is in America and so on. They're government employees. Two guys and a girl. The context of email is that they check on me each week how I'm doing and I'm required to respond to them. I can relay any issues, problems, concerns, questions to them and they will come and help for free. I've last few weeks left, and they told me that I was doing just great and they ended the email with "We love you!"

What do they mean? And how do I respond? Do I say "I love you too?"

Love is very personal for me as I grew up in Africa, and its reserved just to my mom, dad, sisters, and brothers.

Solution 1:

Some Americans (usually younger) use love very frequently and informally, and others don't. For those that do, the word is intended to convey affection and support, similar to the use of the word love between family members, but without the same depth of emotion.

The use of we is important here, because it depersonalizes the word and makes it clear that it's being used in its lesser sense. If it were I love you, it would be likely to be interpreted more strongly.

You shouldn't feel any need to reply in kind. Even among Americans the majority of people do still reserve the word for its original meaning.

Solution 2:

In this context, consider "we love you" as enthusiastic approval of what you are doing or enjoyment of working with you. Most likely, whatever interaction you are having with them, they are pleased and you make the job easy for them. I would disagree that this has anything to do with actual affection or "love" in the traditional sense. It is just an expression.

Solution 3:

Without knowing the full context of these "government workers" or their personalities and history, it's difficult to say what precisely they mean. Chris Sunami's answer about love as a sort of affection is probably the answer. But I want to point out another possibility.

Among some religious groups (in my experience certain kinds of Christians), there is a commandment, or at least custom, to love everyone. Therefore such people will often say that they love some person, when really what they are merely fulfilling their duty. Such "love" can take many forms, from true altruism and service to downright abuse in the name of a greater good. But essentially, when speaking, the use of the word love is a reference to the commandment.