Do not salt food and wash at a party: strange habits of foreigners

Italy: cappuccino – only for breakfast

Yes, it is customary here to drink coffee drinks with milk only until noon. After that there is an espresso, and no variations. Why is that? There are many explanations. Someone says that due to lactose intolerance among the inhabitants of Italy, someone assures that it happened so historically: before the invention of refrigerators in the afternoon, milk turned sour. There is a version that this tradition is akin to our porridge for breakfast: if you order oatmeal for lunch, they will also look at you strangely.

Brazil: inviting guests to shower

The first thing you will be asked is if you would like to go straight to the bathroom. And it’s not that in Brazil they ignore deodorants and smell bad from a guest. It’s just a very hot country, and while you get from point A to point B, you may well have a desire to put yourself in order, freshen up, wash off dust and sweat.

Africa and Asia: do not flush toilet paper

However, this tradition will not seem strange to us. Disgusting – yes. But still in Russia, in many old houses, shopping centers (even new ones), you can find advertisements prohibiting flushing toilet paper down the toilet. In Asia and Africa, this is due to the peculiarities of the water supply system. Water may be in short supply, so the paper will clog the pipes. We have the same story, but more often it is connected with the deterioration of the drainage systems.

And in India it is not customary to use toilet paper at all. Local ablution – this is the name for hygiene procedures that replace the use of paper.

France: drinking one cup of coffee for hours

How long does it take to drink an espresso? Maximum – 15 minutes, if you are not in a hurry. In Italy, a portion of coffee is drunk almost in one gulp, in America they drink coffee in liters, and often from disgusting plastic or paper cups. And in France, a cup of coffee is just a reason to sit in a cafe. And no one will say a word if you stretch the cooled espresso for an hour or two.

Portugal: no salt

Here, oddly enough, it is not customary to add salt to the served dish. This gesture means that you didn’t like the food. Therefore, if the dish does not seem salty enough to you, but you do not want to offend the owner, use the salt shaker as discreetly as possible.

Dominican Republic: curlers are stylish

Remember the times of our mothers. To get my hair done, you had to walk for hours with your hair curled in curlers. And if there was no hairspray, the styling still lasted a very short time. Therefore, sometimes they came to visit, hiding the curlers under a scarf. And in the Dominican Republic, going out in this form is absolutely normal and without any headscarf.

India: endless bargaining

The price quoted by local sellers has nothing to do with the actual value of the product. It can be knocked down at times, and this is considered good form. The buyer does not set his own price, but simply refuses the one offered by the seller, listing all kinds of product shortcomings. In no case should you show your interest in buying, you must, on the contrary, demonstrate your readiness to leave. And the seller himself will throw off the price to an acceptable one.

China: leaving food on a plate

It is not customary to eat up every last crumb here. If you eat everything that was served clean, the owner will decide that you are a glutton, that you have little food, and will be offended. However, it is not difficult to follow this rule. In China, they serve such large portions that people who are obsessed with diets, healthy nutrition and healthy lifestyles simply cannot cope with them.

Hungary: no clinking glasses!

It is customary to clink glasses in many countries of the world, but not here. More than a century and a half ago, the Hungarian army suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Austria, and the conquerors celebrated their victory. Of course, they clinked glasses. Now the sound of touching glasses is associated in Hungary with this defeat.

Germany: breaking the dishes before the wedding

In Russia, they say that you can check the strength of a future marriage by starting to glue wallpaper. If everything goes peacefully and without scandals, then life together will be smooth. And in Germany, in the house of future newlyweds, they beat dishes in large quantities: they specially buy clay pots to chop them. The couple must clean up all these fragments, showing a willingness to work together.