In the book (p. 11) I put the French down for two air-kisses to the cheek as their style of greeting, but now it seems from a new survey that this might not be the whole picture. In Paris and central France I'm right: but up in the north, from Normandy across to the Belgian border, les bises habitually consists of four pecks on the cheek; while in the south-east, apparently, they go for trois.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2980475.ece
Going Dutch in Beijing by Mark McCrum
The book is a lighthearted guide to manners, attitudes and customs around the world. Why shouldn’t you offer to split the bill in China, blow your nose in a handkerchief in Japan or make the ‘thumbs-up’ sign in Iran? The often surprising answers are all here. This website is the interactive bit. Feel free to join in with comments on these stories or up to date intercultural insights of your own...
About Me
- mark mccrum
- Mark McCrum has visited six of the seven continents (not Antarctica) and written travel books about Southern Africa, Australia and Ireland. He has been mugged in Rio, picknicked on a glacier in Chilean Patagonia and has lunched with the King of the Zulus (a strict teetotaller whose manners were impeccable). He lives in London, where people love to queue.
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