Communicating Egyptian Style 251station, a lift or generally in public in the United Kingdom.
In parts of the United States, this is also not uncommon,
for example in east coast subways. However, people from
many parts of the United States tend to smile, nod, and/or
say ‘hello, how are you?’ to strangers as they walk down
the street, enter a lift, or in any situation when they are in
direct proximity with another person regardless of gender. To
them, it means nothing, but is simply considered a common
courtesy and polite behaviour. If you happen to be from an
area where this latter practice is common, it will be diffi cult
to break this habit, but break it you must if you don’t want
misunderstandings on a regular basis.
Misunderstanding on the Train
Since I happen to come from an area where it is considered rude
to pass a stranger without some sort of greeting, I speak from
considerable experience on how diffi cult this trait is to break. To show
how important it is to curb this particular habit, however, let me give
you an example of what happened to a friend on an Egyptian train.
A happy, friendly beautiful American woman enjoying the thrill of
being in Egypt, entered a train. In doing so, she smiled brightly (with
little eye contact) and politely said, “Excuse me” to a man standing
close to the door as she passed. Totally innocent and appropriate
behaviour from her perspective (perhaps even required for politeness
in her culture), her actions were totally misinterpreted by the man. He
followed her into the car, tried to start a conversation, and asked her
to sit with him. She, of course, became distressed by the attention,
not understanding why he was following her. According to her normal
rules of behaviour, she had done nothing wrong. When a colleague
quickly tried to come to her rescue by telling the man to leave and that
she was his daughter, the man simply asked her ‘father’ if he could sit
with her. Profuse no’s were not accepted and the man proceeded to
stand at the end of the car and stare at the woman, making her even
more uncomfortable. Finally, a couple of our Egyptian male friends
had to intervene to get the man to leave her alone.Eye Contact
In Egypt, reading eyes is a non-verbal art form. Americans
and especially northern Europeans find the intense
level of gaze common in Egypt to be disconcerting and
uncomfortable. Why? Because long, deep, penetrating gazing
in the West generally means intimacy. In fact, depending on