June 24th, 2007 by Jenn
I have found a really great series of books on Amazon which are all guidebooks to places all over the world, but instead of just describing to you the best places to go when you get there, it also describes cultural differences as well as etiquette for a particular place. If you are inspired as I am to go to Greece someday, you should check out this book!
Greece - Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette (Culture Smart!)
I would be curious to hear from Mel of Mel’s Diner or any other ex-pats living in Greece or any Greek ex-pats living in the US on cultural differences between the United States and Greece. That would be an interesting topic of discussion!
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These books sound like a good idea! There are a lot of relatively simple cultural differences here. For example, “flipping a bird” doesn’t mean much to Greeks, but putting your hand up (in what we consider to be stop position) and moving it forward and backwards means the same thing as our “one finger salute”.
Also, people do a weird head nod when they are saying no here, which always looks to me like it means yes. It isn’t as emphatic as a normal yes nod would be, but it still means yes to me!
For weddings, the bride comes to the church to meet the groom, not the other way around.
Of course, I’ve lived here five years and lord knows I still cross some lines!
Hey Mel!
Thanks so much for your comments! How interesting! I had heard about the head nod thing and how people mistake it for “yes” a lot! That could be a problem! How cool! Anything else you can think of, please come over and post!
Thanks!
Hey Jen,
I’m sure there are tons, but I’ve been here 10 years and can’t recall that many without really brain draining myself.
The first thing a lot of people can’t get used to is “nai” means “yes” and “oxi” means no.
There’s a hand gesture Greeks do that looks like they’re waving goodbye (like patting a dog), but with quicker movements. To most that means “stay there,” but it really means “come here.”
Another thing I didn’t like was people making comments about something personal, such as “oh, you’ve gained a few kilos.” To an American, this is rude, especially when said to a woman. But to a Greek, this means “oh, I’ve noticed you and cared enough to pay attention since we last saw each other.”
Greeks have a habit of being late, so this puts me behind schedule for work a lot. But for some reason it’s rude for me to say that we need to speed it along, and yet perfectly ok for them to not apologize to me for being a half hour late to begin with.
Hey Kat! Thanks for commenting! I think this is so interesting! I think this would be an interesting article to write about cultural differences !
BTW, the book you mention is not very good
Was this part of a pay per post or something?
Nope. I just think it is a nice way to introduce people to cultural differences when traveling. I personally like the series.