How to Greet a Foreign Person

Even in foreign cultures, a first impression is a lasting one. It's important when meeting someone from a foreign culture to greet them properly, since greetings are highly socialized rituals that carry lots of unspoken meaning. Follow these steps to greet a foreign person warmly, without causing offense.

Instructions

1. Know a little about the foreign person's culture. You certainly don't need to be an anthropologist or expert on the foreign person's culture to greet them properly. The important things to know are taboos and gestures that might be considered an insult in the culture. So find out what's socially forbidden in the person's culture so you don't get off to a bad start.

2. Be reasonable about the greeting. Just because someone is foreign does not mean they are deaf, blind or stupid. That is to say, there is no reason to speak louder, smile exaggeratedly or slow your movements down when you greet the person. Greet them genuinely in a way that you would greet a stranger from your own culture.

3. Pepper your greeting with the person's language. Finding one simple word from the foreigner's own language to add to your greeting is a nice way to make the greeting fun and to show the foreign person that you are trying to accommodate them. That said, don't try to speak full sentences of the language if you don't actually know it.

4. Be personal but conservative. One thing that is common to all of us is that we are all individual people with individual names. It's important when greeting a foreigner to treat that person as an individual and not just a delegate from a culture or country. Use the person's name formally, adding "Mr." or "Ms." before their last name (unless they tell you otherwise), and speak respectfully but in a friendly manner.