Cultural faux pas may make for amusing reading, but I’m sure they’re anything but at the time. Sometimes, they may even be dangerous. My grandfather once told me how he settled himself in a steaming hot bath in Korea, only to have the lady of the house appear and start washing him. His reaction and accusations caused an incident that included the lady’s husband shaking a farming implement at my grandfather before my grandfather’s Korean girlfriend (the couple’s daughter) was able to calm things down.

My husband is an immigrant and he has MANY tales of cultural misunderstandings. Sadly, most of those tales are of Americans bumbling over his perceived culture.