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<blockquote data-quote="IndependentLady" data-source="post: 2203932" data-attributes="member: 775896">...when meeting someone? I work at a school. My boss was introduced to a new student&#039;s grandfather. I am not sure if the grandfather just moved to the U.S for the first time ever. or has lived here before, but nevertheless the student and his parents and Grandparents all moved back to the U.S. together from India about six months ago. &nbsp; My boss was telling another co-worker she felt embarassed because she reached out to shake the Grandfather&#039;s hand but later remember a friend telling her that supposedly it&#039;s considered improper for her to shake an elderly person&#039;s hand in India. She then remarked that another one of our co-workers did the same thing and she &quot;felt so bad.&quot; I didn&#039;t see the problem. We are in the U.S., not India and in our society we shake hands when greeting someone, regardless of age or status and we don&#039;t have a caste system here. Now if we were in India, I would think it proper to ask someone from the region we are traveling to what to do. But we&#039;re not. I also commented to my boss, &quot;Well, they live here.&quot; I think, it&#039;s great to be culturally aware in the sense that if he doesn&#039;t take her hand when offered, she understands why and doesn&#039;t think he is rude, but respects his culture. But to now think she and her employees were rude to try to offer our hand in our own country as we are taught to do in our culture...I think that is going too far. Especially considering it&#039;s your first meeting. I would defintely try to observe any customs in the person&#039;s HOME regardless of whether it&#039;s in the U.S. or not, but meeting them out in public is different.&nbsp; Any thoughts on this? Anyone from another country, what are your thoughts?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="IndependentLady, post: 2203932, member: 775896"] ...when meeting someone? I work at a school. My boss was introduced to a new student's grandfather. I am not sure if the grandfather just moved to the U.S for the first time ever. or has lived here before, but nevertheless the student and his parents and Grandparents all moved back to the U.S. together from India about six months ago. My boss was telling another co-worker she felt embarassed because she reached out to shake the Grandfather's hand but later remember a friend telling her that supposedly it's considered improper for her to shake an elderly person's hand in India. She then remarked that another one of our co-workers did the same thing and she "felt so bad." I didn't see the problem. We are in the U.S., not India and in our society we shake hands when greeting someone, regardless of age or status and we don't have a caste system here. Now if we were in India, I would think it proper to ask someone from the region we are traveling to what to do. But we're not. I also commented to my boss, "Well, they live here." I think, it's great to be culturally aware in the sense that if he doesn't take her hand when offered, she understands why and doesn't think he is rude, but respects his culture. But to now think she and her employees were rude to try to offer our hand in our own country as we are taught to do in our culture...I think that is going too far. Especially considering it's your first meeting. I would defintely try to observe any customs in the person's HOME regardless of whether it's in the U.S. or not, but meeting them out in public is different. Any thoughts on this? Anyone from another country, what are your thoughts? [/QUOTE]

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