Subtle / obscure signs for identifying native CF

[Flyndaran]

I know that tapping on someone's shoulder is rude among the deaf community but common among the hearing. I believe, among the deaf, one taps lower on the arm.

[patchwork]

How close they stand to others is a good CF indicator. On a subway car, on a crowded street, in conversation with an acquaintance, etc. "Personal space" and its limits are pretty specific to cultures.

Other tells I'd look for involve the procedure for giving small gifts or for eating a meal in another's home. Do you bring wine or flowers or a dish or nothing? What do you do while dinner is finishing up (who cooks, who cleans, who offers and how are they declined, etc) There's a certain amount of variance within a culture there, particularly among different social classes, but it could be a clue.

[BrockNicholson]

Hand gestures can be very telling. In Thailand if you make a "come here" gesture with a single finger it is very insulting, but waving the entire hand in a similar gesture is just fine.

I know it is also considered incredibly rude to carry your shoes about your waist in Thailand. I learned this by walking into the Thai restaurant I worked at with my work shoes slung over my shoulder. There were literal gasps of horror and outrage.

A person's attitude towards tipping and closing times can be revealing as well. Our restaurant was near Chicago and a lot of Indian men who had recently arrived in the US would eat there. The guys who were recent immigrants thought it was just fine to come in ten minutes before close with a party of 10 or 15 and stay for an hour or two. My understanding was that in India restaurant closing times are posted as the time they stop seating people, not the time they want to leave. Similarly appropriate tipping procedure varies drastically from country to country.

[trans]

Originally Posted by Purple Haze

Other francophone tells, despite being right-handed, play hockey left-handed, bat left-handed (or switch hit), and golf left-handed.

We had a Brit officer who played softball with us in Garmisch, Germany. He held the bat pointing vertically down, like in cricket.

There was also a working-class team of Brits named for one of the local mountains, the Wank. Their name: The Wankers.

[trans]

"Come here" gestures do vary. When I was visiting Atatürk's tomb in Ankara (and I still think he had the GURPS Advantage Fashion Sense), I was carrying a rather full duffle bag. A soldier gestured to me from about 80 meters away by holding his hand out flat and moving it up and down. Maybe he thought I could have had a bomb in my bag. I left it at his guard post and picked it up later, no problem.

In about the year 2000 near the US Capitol Building a young man with a large duffle bag and an apparently Middle-Eastern accent and complexion asked me where the White House was. I told him.

[trans]

Despite being the capital city of a fairly large country, it seemed to me that Ankara had a largely peasant culture. Granted the only time I was there was almost exactly 20 years ago. At that time there had been a couple of incidents in Germany where neo-Nazis had killed some Turkish people. When I went to this museum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_..._Civilizations (a really kick-ass place, bye the way), the guys at the entrance asked me quite earnestly if I was German. I said no, I was American, and they looked quite relieved and waved me in right away. That seems kind of small-minded to me.

On the other hand, I think shortly after that there was also an incident when a US Navy ship fired a missile into a Turkish Navy ship by mistake, killing a few people. After that some Turks had equally black-and-white thinking about Americans.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by trans

...
On the other hand, I think shortly after that there was also an incident when a US Navy ship fired a missile into a Turkish Navy ship by mistake, killing a few people. After that some Turks had equally black-and-white thinking about Americans.

That's just human thinking. When scared, people need simple right and wrong answers, even when time really isn't crucial.

[trans]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That's just human thinking. When scared, people need simple right and wrong answers, even when time really isn't crucial.

You're right, but we humans can also aspire to think rationally. It isn't easy, but the fact that some of us have been able to do it some of the time has made all the difference.