France is one thing but it's started here.
You can of course pre-empt all that by just sticking your hand out. I am now introduced "This is ____ he doesn't kiss" which presumably implies to people that I might have Ebola.
Having said that, Ebola could well put a stop to it. I hope so.
I really need to move back to God's own. Might not be as bad there if you stay away from Leeds and Harrogate.
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>> Having said that, Ebola could well put a stop to it. I hope so.
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It's odd that in a society that is now obsessed with not making "inappropriate contact" with others, more and more people seem to feel they have the right to do exactly that when greeting each other.
A handshake on first introduction is quite enough for me. For old friends a slight nod and a smile conveys far more intimacy than meaningless indiscriminate kissing.
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>>For old friends a slight nod and a smile conveys far more intimacy than meaningless indiscriminate kissing.
"Ay up" or "Nah then" works for me.
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>> "Ay up" or "Nah then" works for me.
Or even 'God, not you again! I'm surprised they let you in.'
My greetings are tailored to the recipient and therefore quite variable of course, from How d'you Do to Wha'hap'm Sah? via HEYYYYY OGA! and various waves, nods and so on.
I worry that my greetings to the single magpies I pass on the road may not be sufficiently formal. I greet them, but a tad familiarly because I see them all the time. I hope they don't get it in for me.
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Kissing invades one's personal space!
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I used to work with someone whose idea of personal space was at odds with almost everyone else. It was common to see her talking to people, including me, and there was a sort of little dance across the room as periodic tiny steps were taken backwards by her interlocutor, and she would move forward again to fill the gap...
Most odd that she never seemed to get the hint. In every other way she was a perfectly pleasant person.
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I dub it 'space cancer'. Luckily only two of my regular contacts have it, and not so oddly, they are father and son.
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I'm sure Roger that you were brought up a bit like me, to be correct and formal in the clear English way come hell or high water, formal and correct to an extent and in ways that would be incomprehensible to most of today's youth. When touched physically, especially with goodwill or affection, the English reflex is to go stiff and rigid in a way that must seem very uptight and offputting to friendly, touchy-feely foreigners (a majority, I would remind you, of the world population).
Unlike you perhaps I was interested from an early age in communication across cultural gulfs and barriers, and have fallen into work that permitted a fair amount of that. Of course nothing's perfect but I have found this activity very rewarding on the whole, although not financially I hasten to add.
They call it interest in 'the other' these days, the modern poncy theorists. But the other really is unfailingly interesting and instructive: in difference you find the same, distillation of the essence of humanity.
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Depends how fit they are.
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Great article in the Economist, and one I'll be printing out and studying carefully, but could they please extend it beyond France? I work in a very multinational company, and regularly greet colleagues from Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, various parts of France and quite a few other countries besides. Generally OK when I'm visiting them (although it can take a long time to get from door to desk in the Paris office) as I can just observe and copy others, but more often it's them visiting me in our UK offices, and then I have to remember where they're from and how many they expect. Some of them are significantly senior to me, too, which adds a frisson to the possibility of getting it wrong.
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If pointless kissing (two on each cheek where I live) and handshaking was outlawed in France - presumably ebola will do the job soon - personal productivity would rise by enough, probably, to justify the 35-hour week.
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Francophilia explained - (Ukippers, pse ignore) - Manatee
