Critical Incident - KISS OR SHAKE HANDS

By Unknown -
CRITICAL INCIDENT

Shall I lean on to kiss or shake hands?

When we were introducing ourselves, on Monday, I came across this little incident. I met a Bulgarian girl to whom just offered me her hand to shake, it was completely fine.
Then I greeted an Italian girl. I offered her my hand (as I was taught), I didn’t see her leaning towards me. Even though, I’ve lived in Catalonia for 10 years, I still can’t get used to kissing people on the cheeks when you meet them. Naturally, it was a surprise for me.
The Swedish ones were actually another story. One of my friends was talking to a Swedish guy and I was just awkwardly standing next to her, waiting for her to introduce me, or for him to say anything regarding my presence. However, it didn’t happen. In the end, I just said hello to him and shook hands.
Learning point, Italians do indeed lean in for kisses on the cheeks, while Bulgarians and Swedish just prefer to shake hands and have personal space, best if you are the one introducing first.

Neha


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Critical Incident - IS ITALY A GREEN COUNTRY?

By Unknown -
Is Italy a green country? in November I travelled to Italy and one of the things I noticed is that they do not recycle at all. They only have one bin in the whole house –my travel companions noticed that too- and the streets were really dirty. I tried to come to some hypothesis of what could be the reason this was so shocking even though we are such similar countries in other aspects. My first thought is that they did not recycle but when I asked my partner she answered that they indeed have been recycling since 2014. Actually, I did some research and in a Swedish guy blog I found out that they even get a tax relief calculated by the quality of their recycling for the ones that do recycle, which is an amazing way to get people to start doing it. So maybe it was me that only saw one bin and they did have several for different products. In my country for example the average Spanish  home has at least four different bins: the organic one for food and kitchen paper, the trash, ...
Read more

April 1st -Saturday

By Unknown -
Image
      We knew that the returning day would be tiring because we would have to get up very early; but surprisingly, getting up before 5am was not as difficult as we thought, maybe because of the nerves of travelling by plane or seeing our family. During the night and Saturday’s morning I was a bit worried because on Friday’s afternoon my body hurt and all the teachers and I were paying attention if this pain would get better or worse. But I could sleep well, so it was not a difficulty at all.   I woke up at 4:20am and then I took a shower that made me feel relaxed. After that, I had breakfast and so, the last meal I would enjoy in Sweden. As I did during the whole week, I ate milk with cereal. Then I put some more things into the luggage and Povel gave me some presents. It was such a beautiful moment!  At a quarter past five I had to say goodbye to Povel and his mother. I told them I had been very grateful during the stay. Povel’s mother, Ingela, ...
Read more

Critical Incident - KISS HUG OR SHAKE HANDS

By Unknown -
Kiss, hug or shake hands?   Although I didn't host anybody, during this week, when the Italian, Bulgarian and Swedish students where in Catalonia, I noticed some differences in our cultures. The first days I had to greet and introduce myself to other students. But I didn't know if I had to kiss them on the cheeks, hug or just shake hands. In Catalonia we usually kiss each other on the cheeks but in other countries too? I thought that if I shake hands it will be more polite because kisses would be strange and inappropriate for someone. In the end I asked my Catalan friends what they did to greet them, and then I realized they had the same problem and I was not the only one. Learning Point: If you’re not sure what to do when you meet someone new from another country, ask them what they do to greet people. It’s easy and better to talk and avoid misunderstandings. Greeting new people I was at my school waiting to the teacher to arrive. In the meantime, a Bu...
Read more