Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cornfed]

I'm doing a lesson on formal greetings. I pointed out that in NZ it's currently fashionable for men to kiss women and women to kiss each other when greeting, which the class seemed to find extraordinary. Is this the tradition in other Western countries, and what other greeting rituals are common?

[thatwhitegirl]

Kissing on the cheek is a European style of greeting. You won't see too many North American's kissing on the cheek. Maybe the posh rich ones.

[victorology]

I'm from Hawaii and we do this all the time. A kiss on the cheek to greet someone of the opposite sex. I assumed all Americans do it but now that I think of it, I don't remember doing it much when I went to college in Illinois.

[poet13]

Some countries it's one cheek, some two, and a few even left-right-left....or right-left-right, not sure which.

[Cornfed]

[Illysook]

Lots of Americans kiss on the cheek, especially among family members. This would include my own family and some of my close friends. Most of my hippie friends stick with a hug. I have one friend with whom a double hug is the tradition.

[blackjack]

[Cornfed]

[sjk1128]

I used to live in Italy where I regularly kissed my friends, male and female, on the cheek - but just one - when meeting and parting. However, I had a friend from Brazil who always kissed me on both cheeks. She said otherwise we'd feel "uneven."

Aside from the kissing, which my students in Korea find surprising and funny, it's interesting to talk about handshakes. Where I'm from in the US, people usually shake hands very firmly, really squeezing them. Especially for men, it seems to be a measure of trustworthiness or masculinity. Instead, in Italy when I met new people, we shook hands very lightly, barely grasping the fingers. Indeed, in Italian you "give" someone your hand, you don't shake it or squeeze it. I've always assumed other cultures whose languages are closely related to Latin are similar to Italy in greeting customs - and other English speaking countries are more similar to the US, but that may not be true. Usually, when I meet someone new I just do whatever he/she does in terms of how hard to squeeze, how close to get, etc.

[ernie]

yuck! the dead fish handshake is the worst.

[Cornfed]

[DrOctagon]

I kiss most of my female friends on the cheek back home (in Chicago). It started as a thing among hispanics and Italians, but I think it caught on with whiteys. My family is Puerto Rican and guys and girls all kiss eachother on the cheek. Guys just hug or shake hands firmly, depending on how close of a connection we have. I hardly ever see these types of physical greetings among my white friends' families. In my experience, white families seem not to be as connected as Hispanic families. I've had a few white friends tell me that they never get homesick (the ones living here).

[poet13]

A long time ago in Toronto I used to see this girl about once every 18 months. Sex was the normal greeting. I say this because I distinctly remember sitting on a chair in the kitchen putting my socks on afterwards and asking, "So, how have you been?"

[jkelly80]

I've always heard it's rude for a man to extend his hand to a woman--he should wait for it to be offered.

[Sleepy in Seoul]