Why should I be careful when looking people from other cultures in the eye?

Why should I be careful when looking people from other cultures in the eye?

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...

Americans believe that if you mean what you say, you look a person in the eye, and if somebody avoids contact, we interpret that very negatively. So, this is just one example of a teacher calling one of her students up to talk to her and to explain something to the child. The child was misbehaving and it was a girl, and the girl was from Mexico, and the entire time that the girl was in front of her, the girl looked down. And the teacher scolded her and said, "Look me in the eye!" And the girl didn't, and she went home and she told her mother. And this mother was very intelligent and came to school the next day and said, "My daughter did not look at you because she was paying you respect. She has never even looked her grandparents in the eye. And that is a sign of disrespect if she were to look you in the eye." Well, once the teacher understood that, she understood that. But we impose our beliefs on top of that. Now among teenagers, if you stare somebody in the eye, that's an inventation to violence. It's sort of like daring them. It's called "mad-dogging". And if you go to Universal Studio's Universal City Walk, there's a signs that said "no undue staring". So, they understand that by staring, you're just sort of challenging another person.