cultural differences

Culture plays a large role in many nonverbal messages. Happiness, anger, disgust, fear, surprise and sadness may be emotions that are expressed nonverbally in common ways around the world but there are also many messages that take on different meanings depending on the culture. For example, in Middle Eastern countries it is a great insult to show someone the bottom of your shoe, and here in the United States that nonverbal message would mean nothing. I recently met one of my dad’s work-friends who is from London and before I could reach out to shake his hand he was already leaning in to kiss my cheek. I’m not very familiar with British culture but I assume the action of kissing someone’s cheek is just a friendly and polite way to say ‘hello’ or ‘nice to meet you’ to someone. I was a little caught off guard by a stranger being so close to me but I was able to understand our cultural differences and respect his way of saying ‘hello’.