5. Posture Talks
In the United States, where“ casualness”is considered a great virtue, people often sitwith feet on chairs or even desks. They sometimes sit with their backsides ( buttocks) ontables and desks as a way of expressing their individuality or career attitude. They feelcomfortable crossing their legs and sitting with one ankle on the other knee . Poorposture — slumping oneself over while sitting in a chair and placing feet on whatever objectis around — is a common U. S. behavior. It is designed to show that the person is casual,honest, sincere, and“ just one of the folks ”. In the United States, even millionaires,corporation presidents, government leaders, and movie stars try to pretend they areordinary people by using“the U. S. slouch ”and“ the feet-on-the -furniture”maneuver. Unfortunately, other countries interpret this behavior as being sloppy and as reflectinga general lack of alertness, interest, and respect. People from the United States do notusually realize that what they regard as casualness is viewed very differently and very negativelyby many people around the world. People in many cultures are expected to sit erect. Such cultures include many countriesin Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. In the United States, slouchingis acceptable and is a positive sign of being casual and friendly.In the United States, crossing legs is a sign of good etiquette . Many cultures say thatcrossing legs is okay, but placing the ankle on the knee while crossing one’s legs is totallyunacceptable . One reason for not putting the ankle on the knee is that when you do so, one foot orthe sole of the shoe is usually pointing at someone . This is a very severe insult in manycountries around the world, especially Muslim countries. Under few circumstances shouldyou point your foot at anyone , because the foot is cons idered the least sacred part of thebody in many societies. In some countries such as Nepal, pointing the foot at a cow is anoutrage , because the cow is a sacred animal. In Buddhist countries, pointing the foot atstatue of the Buddha is a severe offense. Moving objects with the feet is very rude in Thailand,Nepal, and Taiwan. In Bangladesh, you should not touch books with a foot orshoe; if you do, you must make an elaborate apology.