Greetings. The first area of uncertainty that the foreigner may feel in a country is what to say, or do when meeting others?

The first area of uncertainty that the foreigner may feel in a country is what to say, or do when meeting others? Generally the verbal greetings can be straightforward and easily learnt. However, whether or not to bow, shake hands, put your hands together in a prayer-like gesture (namaste), etc can be confusing for first timers. The western aspect of shaking hands as the international form of greeting on meeting has slowly been permeating into the many cultures of the world. However the traditional forms of welcome in a country are not going to be readily replaced by a handshake. What we often see is a mixture of the traditional forms of greetings and a handshake when "East meets West". However, although handshakes may be an acceptable and/or common form of greeting, whether a male shake hands with a woman can be an entirely different matter in many countries. A general "rule of thumb" is if the woman does not extend a hand, you do not shake hands. It is also very important to understand that the bows, prayer like gestures and similar physical greeting gestures are very similar if not equivalent to a handshake. In fact, such gestures can in essence express a kinder and friendlier meaning of welcome than a handshake. For example, the common Hindi/Urdu greeting and farewell gesture is a namaste (or nawaskar). Used for greeting or a farewell, the palms of the hand are placed together and the tips of the fingers are chin high. It means, "I pay my respects to you". Muslim men may touch their heart with their hand after shaking hands and this means "Your greeting is being conveyed to my heart" and is a sign of strong friendship. The Korean and Japanese bows are a form of showing respect for age, seniority and your position in society. The bow is performed before you shake hands. Do you give a strong firm bonecrushing handshake or should it be just firm or a quite gentle handshake. This also varies between countries. A very gentle handshake in Australia would be regarded as portraying a weak person whereas it would be quite suitable for China. The one unbreakable rule in all situations is that you should always accompany a handshake with a smile.