Hi everyone, a couple of weeks ago I asked what makes you smile..this week my question is: to smile or not to smile?

From your own personal experience, when you are travelling (remember those days) or working with people from different countries, do you think all cultures interpret the smile in the same way?

I’d love to hear your views... have you found a smile always helps, or have you been in situations where you think it is perceived differently?8574196887?profile=RESIZE_710x

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  • A smile, a laugh, a joke (in the correct environment) are key things for me. 

    Always make sure it's a genuine smile. Fake smiles are easy to read and will always put you in a more difficult position, in my opinion. So keep it real.

    I've never had any issues with my smile when i've travelled the world but was caught out in my early days of travelling by some hand gestures. Obviously the "coffee bean shaker" is frowned upon pretty much universally, but "thumbs-up" has different meanings around the world and shaking hands with your left hand (i'm left-handed) left me in an uncomfortable position on my first trip to India. 

    As The Killers sing - "smile like you mean it".

    • Thanks for your reply Scott.  Agree.. yes, a genuine smile is very important! And I've had similar experiences with hand gestures - like discovering that I wasn't saying what I thought I was with a thumbs up across a board room table in Argentina! And as a women, I've been in a line up where I was totally missed out when it came to hand shaking.. obviously very odd from my own cultural perspective.. but went on to make great friends and learn other perceptions of that too - but that is a whole other topic! 

  • It's a sad state of affairs if you can't smile anymore without it being interpretted the wrong way.  I have always thought a smile is welcoming, in every culture.

    • Thanks for your comment Mark, and would tend to agree. I'm certainly not trying to be controversial, I'm just curious to learn about other peoples experiences as, like you, I assumed the smile is welcome everywhere - it has worked well for me in most countries I have been in - that was until I moved to Kazakhstan in 2016!  I was quite perplexed at first by peoples reaction when I smiled - then a Kazakh colleague kindly enlightened me. She told me about a saying in Russian that goes along the lines of 'to smile without reason is a sign of foolishness' so she explained that smiling at someone you dont know, such as someone I passed in the doorway, as I would, was very odd for them!!  It certainly helped me as I had spent my first few weeks feeling like everyone was very unfriendly - in fact they were being respectful in their eyes!! Its all about perception :-) 

  • A smile definetly helps as its a great ice breaker. Something I need to work on more! Whenever I am speaking at an event or with a client or on a video I am aware I always look so serious. The message can at times be serious however I just wish i looked more happy about it at times!  Thanks for the post.

    • I agree, its nice to see a welcoming smile. As you can read in my comment above, in reply to Mark, I have however learned that a smile can be perceived differently in different cultures. I would add though that a lot of people from those cultures are also learning the importance of smiling in international environments - hence Russians were coached in the importance of smiling in preparation for the world cup in Moscow in 2018! As for online calls, I think a lot of us have become paranoid with the introduction of seeing ourselves on screen. I didn't realise how self conscious I was about my imperfect teeth until I saw myself on video calls.. so I avoid toothy smiles not because of any cultural background but simply because I hate my imperfect teeth :-)

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