By The Hunger
There’s more than one way to say hello. Whether Kenyan or Klingon, every culture has a unique way of greeting each other. When you meet a guy from most foreign countries, a right-handed handshake will suffice. However, when meeting girls from different countries, an uncomfortable hello can easily turn into a comfortable goodbye.
Kiss On The Cheek
Thousands of years of human evolution has resulted in each country, culture, and group saying hello differently. In France, they do a double Kiss On The Cheek. In Holland, they do a triple kiss. In Japan, they bow. Even in the USA, people coming from different backgrounds (African Americans, Hispanics, and Caucasians) have different hellos. Greetings speak volumes about a nation’s people.
In Thailand, it doesn’t take tourists a long time to realise that a good smile and a heartfelt sawadee will open more doors than Gene Wilder’s character in the film Willy Wonka.
Could you imagine doing the wai outside of Thailand? Hmm, I don’t think so. Normally, if you meet someone in their country, their territory, you should subscribe to their method of greeting. If I go to the Arctic one day and met an Inuit, the “Eskimo kiss” might make an appearance.
In Scandinavia, a Kiss On The Cheek when you first meet someone is akin to accosting a goat publicly. I think developed countries tend to be (but not always) less affectionate when it comes to greetings.
Coming from Australia, unless you know her well, you’re in limbo land when it comes to Kissing On The Cheek because it can be seen as too personable, too soon, no doubt stemming from our Anglo-Saxon heritage. This results in a cordial handshake. Something doesn’t sit quite right about just shaking hands with a woman. However, after a couple of drinks at a Sunday session and BBQ, it’s interesting to see how quickly handshakes can turn into friendly cheek kissing.
I was at a party the other day and saw first-hand how different flags greet each other on neutral ground. The English guy tried to shake hands, the French girl tried to Kiss On The Cheek, resulting in the dreaded kiss-handshake. To see this in real-time was like watching someone sink the black ball by mistake. It’s probably easier for handshakers to adapt to cheek-kissers than the other way around – especially with a beautiful girl.
The biggest benefit of Kissing On The Cheek is that it’s less mechanical and more human. Having to kiss more people than Oscar Schindler just to be polite can be downright annoying – it’s pure logistics. That’s why I change it up depending on the situation. When there’s a big group of people I might quickly acknowledge and wave hello, and if I meet them later, I might reintroduce myself again, this time with a kiss, this time it’s more personable. I wouldn’t just kiss for the sake of kissing.
Saying hello is the same as opening the front door. Knowing a little bit about what nationality you’re talking to might change how fast it closes. And if it’s your first time to a new country, it’s always good to learn anyways.
the dreaded kiss handshake! haha – love it