What might a smile mean in other cultures?

What might a smile mean in other cultures?

Norine Dresser (Writer) gives expert video advice on: How do I know how to greet someone of another culture?; How do signs of affection differ among cultures?; Which American gestures might be interpreted as obscene by other cultures? and more...

There are many books that say the smile is universal. Yes, it's a universal movement but it's not universally interpreted. For example, Koreans believe that the smile is a sign of frivolity. That if something is important and serious, you don't smile too much. That same belief is held by the Japanese. In the old days, when they would take pictures of our diplomats with the Japanese diplomats, ours were always smiling and the others were not and so people who saw that picture in the newspaper really thought, "Oh, boy, I guess that meeting wasn't a success." They didn't realize that the Japanese were demonstrating how serious a matter this was. And now, that's not so because now they've learned that in order to convey the right feeling and to let them know that it was a successful meeting, they have to smile. So it's very tricky. There are a lot of different meanings to a smile.