American Habits That Are Rude In Other Countries (2 of 5)

Wearing your shoes at home

If you’ve been travelling around, the last thing you want to do is kick off your shoes and let your feet breath. It’s considerate of you that you don’t want to stink up the place with foot sweat and shoe stink, but that’s not always the case in other places. If you go to Japan or the Caribbean, kicking off your shoes regardless of the circumstances is required.

Leaving a tip

Kicking over a few extra bucks to your server, waitress, delivery person, or other artists for various tasks may seem normal in the United States, but that’s not the case in various parts of Asia and Europe. The workers there are paid much better and offering a tip to them seems degrading to them.

Laughing with your mouth open

Belting out a laugh is good in any kind of situation when someone tells you a joke. You’ll be in good graces with people in Japan if you do that. However, it’s important how you laugh as well. In Japan, if you’re caught laughing and showing off your teeth in the process – it’s both rude and horse-like.

Cleaning off that plate

In the United States, our mothers taught us to eat up everything that was on our plate. It’s wasteful if we leave anything. That’s not so much the case in places like China. If we clear up our entire plate, it sends a message to the hosts that they didn’t give us enough to eat. So while you’re there, relax, enjoy your meal, and make sure you doggy bag some for later.