D@## your moustache! (1 Viewer)

[Philip_G]

I always thought in the arab world showing the palms of your hands was also an insult. Perhaps I'm misinformed?

 

[Steven K]

I fart in your general direction!

 

[MarkHastings]

I always thought in the arab world showing the palms of your hands was also an insult.

I forget exactly, but there are some cultures that don't use toilet paper and extending your right hand to shake ones hand is considered an insult because that's the hand you...well, I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

 

[Rain]

Anyone who is able to look at North American culture objectively can see very clearly that it's just as "silly" as any other in its own ways.

 

[Yee-Ming]

there are some cultures that don't use toilet paper and extending your right hand to shake ones hand is considered an insult because that's the hand you...

not sure about the toilet paper bit, but IIRC in Malay culture, it's the other way around -- they use their left hand to deal with their business, so using the left hand to pass anything is considered rude.

in addition, after shaking hands (with the right of course), the right hand then goes immediately to the heart, which I understand is to signify that the greeting is a heart-felt one, or something like that.

interestingly, they also believe it's rude to point with an index finger as most of us would, so they point with somewhat lightly clenched fist with the thumb on top, using the thumb as the pointer.

 

[ken thompson]

Yeah, I wrote D@## as Damn but either the system or one of the moderators changed it.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

I'm amazed that after they ripped-off the statues head that no-one bothered to shit down it's neck hole. I think that would be a fairly universal message.

Also.., In the middle-east, what do signs on stores say in place of "No shirt, No shoes?"

 

[Lew Crippen]

Yee-Ming is correct and far too modest (IIRC, indeed).

 

[Holadem]

not sure about the toilet paper bit, but IIRC in Malay culture, it's the other way around -- they use their left hand to deal with their business, so using the left hand to pass anything is considered rude.

Exactly the same in my country. Even accepting anything with the left hand is rude.

I am a textbook example of that: I was born a leftie, but this tutor I had forced me to write with my right hand. So now, I am a rightie (is that word? don't care) with my hands, and a I play soccer with my left foot :rolleyes.

This happened unbeknown to my parents, they would have never condoned something so extreme and stupid - yes, it was stupid.

--
Holadem

 

[Mike Lenthol]

interestingly, they also believe it's rude to point with an index finger

That's odd because I was taught that as a child, in an 'American Culture'

 

[Yee-Ming]

Lew, thanks for the confirmation.

Holadem, I'm embarrassed to say this, having read many of your posts over the past year, but I'm sorry to ask: which is your country? I vaguely recall it's African, but beyond that I don't know.

I think even the Chinese have something about that as well, forcing leftys to become rightys, although I'm not too sure why, probably more something to do with bad luck rather than "cleanliness" issues which I've never heard of.

oh, and one more thing about the soles of the foot/shoes: I understand even showing the sole to someone is considered rude in some cultures; hence one particular High Court Judge here actually gets his security guard to tell anyone sitting at the back in the public gallery to uncross their legs if they happen to sit that way -- happened to me once :b

 

[David Lawson]

Wouldn't it be easier for Chinese to be left-handed? We were always made to write right to left in my Mandarin class.

 

[Mike Lenthol]

forcing leftys to become rightys, although I'm not too sure why

Two words: miltary service. All the equipment is right handed.

 

[MarkHastings]

I understand even showing the sole to someone is considered rude in some cultures

Yes, this is true. I forget the explanation (and I wish I could remember more), but I learned a great deal of these things when I attended a class on customs.

I was working at the Special Olympics as a "Greeter" and there were many people there from all over the world and we had to take a class to learn what "Not" to do so as not to offend anyone. The left hand thing was mentioned and showing the bottom your shoe was also mentioned...I just wish I can remember the others.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Chinese isn't written right to left anymore. at least not in China, not sure if Taiwan still clings to the old conventions.

even in the old conventions, it was top to bottom first, and then right to left, so you'd have vertical columns of text which you read from top to bottom, and the next column was to the left of the first one, i.e. right to left.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Two words: miltary service. All the equipment is right handed.

Actually this isn't true. Things like bayonets, hand grenades, and entrenching tools are ambidexterous. And rifles are more correlated to eye-dominance than hand-dominence. I'm left handed but shoot "right handed" because I'm right eyed.

 

[Mike Lenthol]

I didn't mean all as in 100% all encompassing. They were much more concerned with tanks and aircraft control than small arms. It was not a practice exclusive to China, it was common throughout the Commi block.