National kissing day – greetings from across the world
Apparently it’s national kissing day today (isn’t every day national something day?). It’s a thing the British are notoriously priggish about. The authorities at Warrington Bank Quay station went so far as to set up no kissing zones last year on the pretext that lingering couples were holding up the trains.
That got me thinking. Across the world, we meet and greet each other in many different ways that are governed by our social customs and habits. Train stations and airports tend to bring on uncharacteristic shows of emotion in the British so we’ll discount those situations. How do people greet each other?
In France, everybody shakes hands or kisses cheeks (including kids) every time they see each other. And yes, men do kiss in the street, although it’s generally family members.
In Greece, back slapping replaces hand shaking in many cases (sounds a bit theatrical…)
In Moldova some men might greet a woman by kissing her hand while saying, “I kiss your hand”. Well, you would…
In Japan, bowing is the norm so don’t go trying to kiss someone who’s bowing, you’ll miss and look stupid. Cross-cultural misunderstanding in it’s essence.
In Mongolia, you may be expected to exchange a pipe.
In Niger, the Kanouri people shake their fists at head level and say “Wooshay! Wooshay!” (“Hello! Hello!”). The last time someone shook their fist at me it wasn’t to say hello!
In Taiwan — the traditional greeting is (apparently), “Have you eaten?”. Nope…
Canadian Inuits rub noses. Well, it’s cold…
In Tibet, poke your tongue out at someone. It shows you have no evil thoughts. Now that’s cool.
Who’d have thought just saying hello could cause such confusion? Generally, you can plead innocence and look the stupid foreigner in cultural situations that are completely outside your own. People may think you’re quaint. However, in Europe for example and France in particular, in certain social and business situations there are different ways of shaking hands and different ways of kissing. Limp shake or hard shake? Do you do two, three or four, is it full on or air kissing (mouah!). That is probably the subject of another post.
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