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Cultural Etiquette
Cultural Dos and Taboos
1. A handshake is an appropriate form of greeting. Close friends and relatives will often embrace and kiss each other on the cheeks as they greet each other.
2. Good topics of conversation include sports, travel, family, culture and international politics.
3. People generally nod or politely greet one another as they pass in streets and in hallways. Handshakes among business associates is customary, while cross-gender cheek kissing is normative in social and familial settings. Indeed, cross-gender cheek kissing is a traditional greeting for business associates and acquaintances, as well as friends and family in social environments. The Americanized "hug" is reserved for highly emotive and special moments, as a gesture of close relations between the "huggers."
4. More formalized forms of address is customary in this country. Titles or insignias denoting authority or rank, such as "Professor," "Minister," "Doctor," or "Mr." And "Mrs.," are almost always used, unless explicitly invited to do otherwise. Among friends, somewhat more familiarity is employed so that children of friends or associates do not refer to their parents' cohorts as "Mr." or "Mrs.," but rather, as Aunt or Uncle, whether or not there is a familial connection. While locals are cognizant of the Americanized tendency to use first names freely (i.e."Just call me Frank"), the local conventions remain somewhat more formalized and traditional.
5. The same sort of attention to authority and designations is also attributable to written correspondence. Letters, faxes and emails must adhere to the strictest standards of tradition, even if personal relations may be more relaxed.
6. Most of the North American hand and facial gestures will be understood.
7. Elbows on tables, feet on furniture (or anywhere other than the floor), are considered inappropriate reflections of "para-language" (or non-verbal commuication).
8. Dining is Continental style with the fork steadfastly in the left hand and the knife in the right hand. Elbows should remain off the table and flatware should be placed in the four o'clock position when eating is finished.
9. When invited to someone's home, it is customary to take a gift. Flowers to the wife of a business associate and quality liquor to one's cohort are suggested gifts. Rum is plentiful here, making a bottle of imported vintage wine, sherry or port preferable.
10. Dress appropriately; although casual self-presentation is customary in the Caribbean, slovenly dress, a lack of footwear in public places, walking in public without a shirt, and beach apparel in any venue other than on the beach, is considered to be in very poor taste.
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