Forms of Greeting by using the body language (Hanan)

Handshakes:

• United States and Canada: Firm handshake.
• France: Soft, quick handshake.
• Japan: Handshake with arm fully extended, accompanied by a bow.
• Germany: Firm handshake. Men traditionally accompany the handshake with a slight bow.
• Middle East: Handshake with the free hand placed on the forearm of the other person.
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Bowing: Many people from Asian cultures bow in greeting. In Japan, people bow with their hands at their sides, and the depth of the bow is related to the level of respect due to the other person. Thais bow with their palms together and fingers outstretched, while people from Cambodia and Laos bow with their hands in front of their chests. Pakistanis use the salaam, and bow with the palm of the right hand on their foreheads.

Hugging and Kissing: Native Hawaiians hug and exchange breaths in a custom called "aha." Mexicans will usually hug upon greeting (the abrazo). Men in many parts of the world exchange kisses on the cheek, and places where this is a common practice include Cuba, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

For the Maori of New Zealand, a traditional greeting includes the pressing together the noses (the hongi), and a cry of welcome (the karanga).

Other Body Language

Eye Contact: In Western cultures, people make intermittent eye contact while speaking to demonstrate interest and trustworthiness. People in the Middle East use very intense and prolonged eye contact to gauge someone else's intentions, and will move in very close to see the other person's eyes better. However, in Japan direct eye contact is interpreted as an invasion of a person's privacy and an act of rudeness.

insults, for example. You know, forms of communication that say, “in your face, jerk!” Aussies (citizens of Australia) often extend the thumb as if to say yes (our meaning, not theirs – as in thumbs up from Roger Ebert), except as if to mean to say “you idiot!” Meanwhile, in North America, we give offensive people the middle finger because it looks like a certain male body part when formed with our hands. Other cultures ma insult people with the finger-thumb zero sign (which we see as “A-OK” here), a v-shape formed with the first two fingers after the thumb (we call that the “victory sign”) or the index finger and the small little finger all the way back from the thumb.

Another common gesture people can mix up in different countries is the “he is acting like he is crazy” motion. In North America, we point to our heads and swirl our fingers clockwise to indicate such inferior unintelligent behavior. If you do that in Japan, however, you make it look to locals as if you mean otherwise (as if he is thinking intelligently). However, reversing the motion DOES indicate to a man native to, say, Tokyo or Nagasaki, that he should correct his behavior to correct standards. The point is clear: different cultures call for different body language standards.