Etiquette which cheek to kiss

Try Babbel. Toggle Menu. Ready to learn? Pick a language to get started! General Guidelines No Matter Where You Are In most countries where cheek kissing is the norm, you usually offer your right cheek first. Instead, gently rest your cheek against theirs and kiss the air. There are a select few individuals who insist on kissing others squarely on the cheek, leaving you to peck the air miles away from their face, but thankfully such experiences are far and few between.

EF's GO blog offers the latest on travel, languages, culture, international careers and student life. We live and breathe this stuff here at EF and hope GO inspires, excites and helps you plot your next steps in life. Our mission is simple: We open the world through education. For over 50 years, millions of students have traveled abroad with us to learn a language and become immersed in a new culture.

Today, students from over countries study one of 9 languages at EF's 50 International Language Campuses in 19 countries around the world. Call us: The question becomes even more complex when one tries to understand contextual factors. Kissing between men was once stigmatized, yet is common in certain contexts and some Slavic cultures. For the past 15 years or so, this ritual has been a regular subject of online debate. Some of the discussions are about how many kisses one should give.

To better understand the question, from to we conducted a series of online surveys. Our initial map was based on answers from more than 18, respondents who said they had spent the bulk of their youth in Belgium, France, or Switzerland. We tracked the responses for each district in Belgium, France, and Switzerland, retaining the number with the highest percentage of responses. The results are striking and show a number of clear patterns.

Two kisses are also customary in the French-speaking parts of Switzerland. In northern France, the areas in pink correspond to places where people still give four kisses. However, data indicate that in these regions the four-kiss greeting has stiff competition from the two-kiss version. As can be seen on the maps below, the custom of four kisses is more prevalent among older residents of France, primarily in eastern Brittany and the Loire region.

A popular French joke states that you may recognise the city you are in by counting the number of cheek kisses, as it varies across the country. According to a survey of more than , citizens, Parisians consider two kisses the norm, while three is standard in Provence, and four throughout the Loire Valley. Cheek kissing in the Arab world is relatively common, between friends and relatives. Cheek kissing between males is very common. However, cheek kissing between a male and female is usually considered inappropriate, unless within the same family, e.

In this greeting, the two people touch or rub their noses together and inhale. In Latin America, in business settings, the cheek kiss is not always standard upon introduction, but once a relationship is established, it is common practice.