Cultural Awkwardness
So here I am just sitting at my desk minding my own business, when a tall, fine smelling French doctor I never met before (I work at a hospital) came into my office and when I put my hand out to shake his, he grabbed it with his left hand and kissed my cheek.
Whenever I see that in movies it looks so genteel, but in real life, it’s unexpected and very jarring!
What are your social and/or culturally awkward moments?
Comments
Dude, Gosia’s extended family, all being european, are all cheek-kissers. It’s never been anything less than incredibly awkward and stunted, to the point where a few of them grew to realize how bad I was at it and would avoid shaking my hand or going for the cheek kiss. And there’s this look — like “oh god, here he is. He’s gonna fuck it up again. Oh man, what’s he gonna do?”
I mostly just hang out with Kev V’s kids in those instances.
My family has always been cheek kissers/huggers, except for guys greeting guys, but I’m not used to it with non-relatives. I am taking Spanish classes and my teacher is from Colombia. After a few weeks, she greeted me with a kiss on the cheek. The only awkward part was that I am several inches taller than her, so I was surprised and not ready to lean down and just felt dumb. I’ve gotten much better at it with practice and think it’s fun. Now sometimes I have to stop myself from kissing everyone hello!
my social awkwardnesses: any time people who aren’t bill touch me in any gesture more intimate than handshaking. eeeeghhh.
Yeah, I’ll second John’s sentiment on our in-laws. It’s really awkward, but over the years I’ve come to hone my reaction/response time/handling of the situation to a relatively sharp and concise edge so that I can just get through it with as little awkwardness as possible.
Well, I went to this ridiculously formal ball at a military academy held for a bunch of British naval captains. So formal that the 5 other dates of the selected cadets had to go through a crash-course in proper ettiquette and proper dances (think the waltz.
So, the night’s going splendidly, i manage to use the finger bowl properly, daintily eat my palate-cleansing sorbet, even use the proper utensil for the proper course! Then the traditional port digestif happens. The waiter comes and brings the port to the gentleman sitting next to me, he pours his glass and passes it to the person in the other direction. This goes on until it gets to me. I pour my glass and go to set the bottle down, to which everyone at the table save for my date look panicked and yell “NO!!!” in unison completely breaking the quiet of the genteel murmur and musings of the soft string quartet.
Apparently our ettiquette coach neglected to tell us that there’s some custom where the bottle is never supposed to touch the table. Anyway, sitting there totally red faced in a ball gown while everyone in the room is staring at me is by far my most culturally awkward moment.
Hey, at least I have good teeth.
lol oh man! that sounds terrible! I got a little red in the face just reading about it!
Does being kept secret from a girlfriend’s parents (FOR 4 FUCKING YEARS) count as cultural awkwardness? They were the indian types that go for arranged marriages.
Julia said:I pour my glass and go to set the bottle down, to which everyone at the table save for my date look panicked and yell “NO!!!” in unison completely breaking the quiet of the genteel murmur and musings of the soft string quartet.
Fuck that. Etiquette can suck my cock. I’m all about being respectful, but when etiquette crosses the line to ridiculous and completely impractical, I’m out. Did anyone ever give you the justification behind such a moronic rule?
Big Bill said:Does being kept secret from a girlfriend’s parents (FOR 4 FUCKING YEARS) count as cultural awkwardness? They were the indian types that go for arranged marriages.
That girl must be the best liar in the world. What finally ended up splitting you guys up after such a long time?
Big Bill said:Does being kept secret from a girlfriend’s parents (FOR 4 FUCKING YEARS) count as cultural awkwardness? They were the indian types that go for arranged marriages.
Yes, that counts.
Also, I second Jay’s sentiments to the point where I react rather aggressively when someone yells at me for completely idiosyncratic etiquette. However stupid they’re trying to make me feel by correcting me, I try to double it in disdain returned to them.
Jay said:
That girl must be the best liar in the world. What finally ended up splitting you guys up after such a long time?
Lots of compounding factors, unnecessary drama and way too much maintenance. The secrecy thing was only a small part of why we split.