Friday, April 19, 2013

Handshakes. Left or Right hand?


Natasha Ang
Martina Videla Black
Ivan Singgit
Kathy Yuan
Handshakes. Left or Right hand?

When you meet with someone in a formal situation, you will greet with a handshake. Simple, everyone knows that, they stretch their right hand and maybe say a few words, like your name, or “Good Morning”. But, what would happen if someone stretched their left hand?  I have saw just a few times, little kids that without knowing, they stretch their left hands, and someone always tells them; “no, the other hand”, but why?

If we think about it, both hands are exactly the same. Even though just a little percentage of the population is left-handed, this group also handshake with their right hand. Maybe is because almost everyone is right-handed?

Actually we handshake with the right hand, because in the past, when toilet paper did not exist, people had to use their left hands for certain things and the right one for others. While the right hand was used for eating, cooking, and handshaking, between many other things, the left hand had to be used for personal hygiene. 

            Also in the past, when a thief got caught, they cut his hand off, the right hand, so that he would have to be isolated from society as he couldn’t eat properly, with the proper hand.
So now this ritual has been adopted and passed by all generations. And it is used all over the world, especially in business relations in which there are 2 or more different cultures involved, so this would be an international greet among different cultures.

Although we find that there is one exception to the rule. Scouts handshake with the left hand, and there are many versions of the story about how this started, and one of those is that when a very important Coronel for the story of the Scouts enter to a natives town, he went to meet the chief of those people and when he stretched his right hand, the chief said to him: “No, in my town the bravest among the brave is greeted with the left hand”, so after that they adopted this tradition.


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