Meet&Greet: the ultimate guide to avoid awkward moments

Greeting is an act of communication in which human being intentionally make their presence known to each other. A greeting can consist of an exchange of formal expression a simple kiss, a hand shake or a hug. I am sure most of us have at least one awkward moment when being introduced to someone we don't know. Especially because Bristol has lately become such a popular destination for many young people from different nationalities in Europe.

Imagine. You are in a party or social event, you are introduced to a friend of your friend, you don't even know if she/he is British or not... and you end up in a situation where you don't know if you should shake hands, or give a couple of kisses. You don't want to screw up, because that person could be a girlfriend of someone staring at you from the distance, and the last thing you would like is to go home with a broken arm or a swollen eye because you have "crossed the line".

So, if you want to know what you should and shouldn't do, keep reading! 

Non-British people meeting British people

The advice for someone non-British meeting a British person is very straight forward:

• You know him/her? No. Then, shake hands. 
• You know him/her? Yes. Then, you are allowed to give a hug.
• You know him/her very well? Yes. Then, you are allowed to give a hug and a couple of kisses (or a secret hand-shake that guys love that much LOL)

It doesn't matter if it's a girl meeting a girl, a guy greeting a guy, a girl greeting a guy... As I said, quite straight forward. 

British people meeting Non-British people

This is when the situation gets more complicated, as a Non-British person could be a Spanish, French, Italian... and each nationality has its peculiarities. 

So, first step: find out where he/she is from!

French nationalities shake hands and often kiss on both cheeks, both meeting and leaving. Italians are the biggest kissers kissing on the cheeks 4 times (2 in each side). Belgian people kiss on one cheek when they meet regardless of the gender of how well they know each other. Spanish will kiss both cheeks if a girl is involved in the greeting, and a handshake if it's two guys saying hello. An Arab will shake with right hand only, longer than in the West but less firmly. There shouldn't be contact between the opposite genders in public, as it is considered obscene. Japanese people commonly greet bowing instead of hand shaking while Chinese nod their heads and smile when they meet someone for the first time. In Tibet, it is very polite to stick your tongue out at someone, it shows you have no evil thoughts. In Russia it is an old tradition to kiss three times, on alternate cheeks (left, right, left) as well as in Egypt...

What if you just arrived to the party and you didn't have time to find out? There is a standard methodology everybody should follow to avoid awkward moments:
Two kisses to girls (in the cheeks), and shake hands with guys (if you are a girl, kisses to everybody!). If every single person does it, we avoid embarrassments.

The situation gets very funny when everyone wants to keep their own traditional way of greeting. It happened to me. I was introduced to a British guy, and I  automatically moved closer to his face to give him two kisses and haven't realised that he was his hand for a shake. I'm sure he thought I was a very straight forward girl, as latin girls, or that I was interested in him. 

It would have been even funnier the other way around: when a non-British guy makes the move towards a British girl to double-kiss her whilst she is offering a hand, and rapidly retires her face to avoid the double-kiss. In Spanish, this is called "do the cobra movement". 

The joys of cultural differences!!