Cultural Faux Pas!!

Having spent the past four years at Texas A&M and being by nature an extreme extrovert, I greet people wherever I go, whether I know them or not. When I'm in the U.S. I say "howdy," "hello," or "hi." When in another country, I greet people in whatever way is acceptable in that language, such as "habari," "ni hao," or "hola." Thus begins today...

Katie and I were standing outside waiting to meet some friends and go somewhere. Most of the people who were passing us greeted us as they went in the building, and some kept on walking. I greeted people in return, or in some cases, I was the first to greet. So these two men were walking past and I made eye contact with one of them so naturally I greeted him. He took a few steps, then stopped, came back, and started speaking to me. The problem with this is that I don't speak the language very well yet, so I couldn't understand what he was saying because he was speaking so fast. I said, "I don't understand," and he responded saying, "You said hello to me, right?" and I said, "yes." He said, "why?" I was confounded! I said, "because?" like a big dork. He started speaking really fast again, I told him I only speak a little of the language, and he again asked why I said hello. I said, "to be nice." He laughed and then started speaking quickly again, asked me again why I said hello, and by that time our friends had arrived. They speak the language so they were able to explain to him that in our culture we greet people on the street whether we know them or not. He thought maybe I greeted him because I knew him, or maybe I was trying to hit on him or something. Here, if you greet a man you don't know, they might think you're a prostitute. YIKES!

Lesson learned: don't say hello to strange men.