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Gree­ting Ri­tu­als

Coun­try Gree­ting Ri­tu­al
Me­xi­co Men will shake hands in gree­ting. Women will often pat each other on the right fo­re­arm or shoul­der ins­tead of shaking hands. If they have a close re­la­ti­ons­hip, they may hug or kiss each other on the cheek. Men may wait for women to in­itia­te a hand­shake. At a party, give a slight bow to ever­yo­ne as you enter the room. It is cust­o­ma­ry to greet and shake hands with each in­di­vi­du­al. Usual­ly your host will in­tro­du­ce you. You are ex­pec­ted to shake hands with each per­son when you leave.
Japan The Ja­pa­ne­se are very aware of Wes­tern ha­b­its, and will often greet you with a hand­shake. Their hand­shakes tend to be weak; this gives no in­di­ca­ti­on of their as­ser­tiven­ess of cha­rac­ter. The bow is their tra­di­tio­nal gree­ting. If so­meo­ne bows to greet you, ob­ser­ve ca­re­ful­ly. Bow to the same depth as you have been bowed to, be­cau­se the depth of the bow in­di­ca­tes the sta­tus re­la­ti­ons­hip bet­ween you. As you bow lower your eyes. Keep your palms flat against your thighs.
Bra­zil Gree­tings tend to be ef­fu­si­ve, with ex­ten­ded hand­shakes com­mon du­ring the first en­coun­ter, pro­gres­sing to em­bra­ces once a fri­endship has been es­ta­blis­hed. Women often kiss each other on al­ter­na­ting cheeks: twice to mar­ried women, three times to a sin­gle woman. The third kiss is sup­po­sed to in­di­ca­te "good luck" in fin­ding a spou­se. It is po­li­te to shake hands both on ar­ri­val and on de­par­tu­re. Bra­zi­li­ans com­mu­ni­ca­te in very close pro­xi­mi­ty. They may keep in phy­si­cal con­tact by tou­ch­ing arms, hands, or shoul­ders du­ring the ent­i­re con­ver­sa­ti­on.
Eng­land A hand­shake is stan­dard for busi­ness oc­ca­si­ons and when vi­sit­ing so­meo­ne at home. Women tend not to shake hands. A woman may ex­tend her hand; men tend first to wait for women to do so. When in­tro­du­ced, say "How do you do". The ques­ti­on is rhe­to­ri­cal, and should be met with the same re­s­pon­se.
Sau­dia Ara­bia Wes­ter­nis­ed Saudi men shake hands with other men. Some Saudi men will shake hands with Wes­tern women. When a vei­led Saudi woman is with her hus­band, it is not tra­di­tio­nal for him to in­tro­du­ce her. A more tra­di­tio­nal Saudi gree­ting bet­ween men in­vol­ves each grasping the other's right hand, pla­c­ing the left hand on the other's right shoul­der, and ex­ch­an­ging kis­ses on the cheeks.
Thai­land Press your hands to­ge­ther as though in pray­er, ke­eping arms and el­bows close to your body, then bow your head so that it tou­ches the tips of your fin­gers and say "Wai"(pro­noun­ced like why in Eng­lish). This tra­di­tio­nal gree­ting is used for both mee­ting and de­par­ting. Thais will shake hands with Wes­ter­ners, but they will be plea­sed if you greet them with their tra­di­tio­nal gree­ting.
US Ame­ri­cans Ame­ri­cans shake hands only when first in­tro­du­ced. Women don't usual­ly shake hands; howe­ver, it has be­co­me more com­mon for them to do so. When mee­ting peop­le the first time, they will en­ga­ge in small talk, which in­clu­des as­king about your trip, where you're from and what you do. The an­s­wers are not ex­pec­ted to be long. The in­iti­al gree­ting is used to find com­mon ground, but not for in­ten­se re­la­ti­ons­hips. It isn't usual for men to slap each other on the shoul­der to show fri­end­li­ness, but usual­ly only with peop­le they al­re­a­dy know. Women tend to hug each other.
In­do­ne­sia In­do­ne­sia has more than 300 eth­nic groups each with its own tra­di­ti­ons. Ex­pect to shake hands only upon in­iti­al in­tro­duc­tions, and be­fo­re or after not ha­ving seen each other for long pe­ri­ods. Most In­do­ne­si­an hand­shakes are more like hand­clasps; they are ra­ther limp and last for some ten or twel­ve se­conds. As spe­cial em­pha­sis, pla­c­ing your left hand over your heart, while shaking hands, can in­ten­si­fy a hand­shake. Most eth­nic In­do­ne­si­ans are Mus­lim; the ma­jo­ri­ty of the rest are Hindu. Tra­di­tio­nal­ly there is no phy­si­cal con­tact bet­ween men and women in these cul­tu­res, so that women and men tend not to shake hands. Do not rush. Take your time; hur­ried in­tro­duc­tions show a lack of re­spect, this ap­p­lies to all In­do­ne­si­ans, from the fac­to­ry worker to the exe­cu­ti­ve. Kis­sing in pu­blic, even a quick peck on the cheek is con­side­red in­ap­pro­pria­te.
China Chi­ne­se nod or bow slight­ly when gree­ting ano­ther per­son. Hand­shakes are also com­mon. Vi­si­tors to fac­to­ries, thea­tres, or schools may be gree­ted with ap­plau­se as a sign of wel­co­me. The usual re­s­pon­se is to ap­plaud back. In­tro­duc­tions tend to be for­mal, with cour­te­sy ra­ther than fa­mi­li­a­ri­ty pre­fer­red.
Fran­ce Al­ways shake hands when being in­tro­du­ced or when mee­ting so­meo­ne, as well as lea­ving. In ge­ne­ral, the woman of­fers her hand first. In so­ci­al set­tings, with fri­ends, ex­pect to the les bises : this being the tou­ch­ing of cheeks and kis­sing in the air.

Ice brea­ker for fur­ther dis­cus­sions

Si­tua­ti­on:

Cock­tail party at an in­ter­na­tio­nal con­gress. Peop­le try to meet lots of other peop­le. They should meet and greet as many peop­le as pos­si­ble, ex­ch­an­ging just a few words about where they come from, and then move on to the next per­son. When they greet they should do so with the ri­tu­als on their role cards.

Fol­low-up ques­ti­ons:

  • How did you feel about the role you had to play?
    ⇒com­fort zone
  • How do you think you came across to the others using these gree­ting ri­tu­als?
    ⇒ pos­si­ble to play the role rea­lis­ti­cal­ly?
  • If you tra­vel to this coun­try do you think it is a good idea to greet in this way?
    ap­pro­pria­te as a for­eig­ner?

Ri­tu­als are taken from a book that tries to find com­mon fea­tures among cer­tain eth­ni­cal groups

Dan­ger: Ste­reo­typ­ing!

Wei­te­re Fol­low-ups:

Be­wusst­ma­chen ei­ge­ner Ri­tua­le

z.B.:

  • wer grüßt wen zu­erst
  • in wel­cher Form
  • auf­ste­hen oder sit­zen blei­ben gar nicht so ein­fach

Ri­tua­le an­de­rer Kul­tu­ren im ei­ge­nen Um­feld, z.B. Russ­land-Deut­sche, Tür­ken

Ge­sam­tes Do­ku­ment "Gree­ting Ri­tu­als" her­un­ter­la­den [.doc][39 KB]

 

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Sab­ri­na Mal­lon-Ger­land
Meg­lis­hal­de 6
88677 Mark­dorf Ger­ma­ny