Handshakes, Hugs and Kisses

Handshake or just hello, don't like the idea of using any foreign greeting personally, TBH. I find both namaste and the fist bump to be alienating and peculiar when other Brits do it unless it's part of their ancestry and culture. Keep it English and restrained!

Nick

 

I've always been a big kisser and hugger for those I know don't mind but now it's Namaste all the way even though folk look at me like I've lost my marbles.This is bringing back yet another memory of my old Dad...I only kissed him on his birthday and Christmas and he'd always say..
"yulk, fastest way to spread germs" with a wry grin.

 

I reserve my reply for now. Albeit. I could never understand this huuing and kissing the air????

 

Before we came here we just greeted friends with a Hello and never greeted people we didn't know. It is difficult to live in a Latin-orientated country and not be grabbed, hugged and kissed before you know it, men and women alike! In bars and restaurants if you are eating and a Portuguese walks past, they nod or invariably say 'bom appetite' even if they don't know you. In comparison the Brits loudly talk to everyone in hearing distance and beyond which is embarrassing. We don't speak to people we don't know in restaurants except for acknowledging the Portuguese manners by an nod or Obrigado/a.

 

Absolutely agree. A smile is the friendliest gesture. I always say hello to people walking past. And they usually respond in a kind manner.

Masks also control garlic breath I believe and they keep my face warm.