Traveling abroad can be an exciting and rewarding experience, it helps you to develop a more mature and open-minded sense of the world. But visiting a different country can also be exhausting and scary, especially when your destination is a place that you’ve never been to. Since you may experience many cultural differences while traveling, so prepare yourself for the cultural shock, and you can make the most out of this wonderful experience.
When you are away from home to a different country, there are rules, codes and cultures that are different from your home. It could be little things, like what time lunch is served or what do you eat for breakfast. It could also be big things like different body gesture or different daily customs.
Take India for example, eating can be the biggest minefield of making blunders. In India, you don’t eat with your left hand, the left hand is for wiping your bottom, taking off your shoes and other nasty functions, while right hand is for eating, passing food, shaking hands.
And Indians take religion very serious, take a bath before enter a temples is a must, while entering a mosque or temple, remember to remove your shoes outside, some temples do not allow menstruating women to enter, and most Hindu temples are closed to non-Hindus in the southern state of Kerala; As to mosque, non-Muslims are forbidden to enter at prayer time, and sometimes women are not let in at all.
The etiquettes that listed above are barely exhaustive. And to be honest, no matter how many books you read or how much research you do on the internet, nothing can truly prepare you for the first few days or weeks in a completely new culture.
So the best thing you can do is to get the right mindset, try to embrace the cultural differences while traveling, put a big smile on your face, keep your eyes open, and take your time to observe the customs and culture of the places that you visit.
In this Etiquette QUIZ, we have collected global etiquette about do’s and don’s in various coutries, composed them into 15 etiquette questions that will help you learn useful tips while enjoying the quiz.
