“Smile is not always directly related to the level of happiness; sometimes, it is culturally influenced.”

When I first came to this country, one thing that stole my heart was the smile on people’s faces. These were the people who were strangers to me. Slowly, I also picked up this habit, and it started coming to me naturally. Walking on the trails or while doing grocery if or at schools, people exchange a smile. It’s a gesture. As you build your life in the United States, you’ll come across many cultural practices and societal norms that might not make a lot of sense. Americans love to be friendly. Americans are usually comfortable talking to anyone about anything. They love to exchange cultural information. If you are approached with a smile by a mom or dad who is there in park with their kid then how would you feel? That what is called….friendliness to strangers.

 

 

Americans often smile at strangers to bond socially. In the United States, it’s just another way of saying hello. Smile is accompanied by people asking you, “How are you?” They aren’t asking to know about your day or how you’re feeling. In reply, you only have to say, “Fine. You”? In countries with more immigrants, people smiled to bond socially. Pro-smiling cultures, such as the United States, tend to see smiling as a mark of respect for another person. Sometimes, smiling is a diplomatic tool to ease relationships and build trust.

 

In cultures where the people are pretty much all from the same culture, there is no such need to communicate in this way as everybody shares the same spoken language, knows their place and share the rules of engagement of all others. Where people from different places have come together without a common language or culture, they have had to use the smile as a way of expressing good intentions.

 

In the workplace, everyone addresses each other by their first names, without the formal “Mrs.” or “Mr.”, even at an upper management level. It’s even rarer to hear someone being called “Sir.” At schools, kids address their teachers by Ms. Teacher’s name and Mr. Teacher’s name.

 

So, if you happen to visit the USA or if you are a newcomer in the USA, don’t feel odd if some stranger passes a smile at you. As a gesture of appreciation, you are expected to smile back. It’s hard to overcome one’s cultural conditioning when it comes to behavior. Especially the non-verbal clues. But understanding the necessity of how non-verbal clues should be given and received makes the entire experience complete.

 

In my opinion, we should develop this habit of smiling. There are a few common faces that we know form our neighborhood or from our building. Try to exchange a smile sometime or just saying “Hi”. It may feel odd to you as this is not your usual behavior or it may feel odd to the person you are saying Hi but when you start doing it on regular basis, you will realize that if any day you miss to say Hi, you will get one. And that could be the start of a new friendship. Do, give it a try. That was for today.

 

This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z. My thee is “Dollar Nation – Are You Ready to Experience the West Through My Eyes”?

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