In many cultures, using your left hand for certain actions can be seen as disrespectful or inappropriate. From shaking hands to eating and exchanging gifts, there are numerous situations where the left hand is considered unclean or impolite.
Understanding these cultural differences is crucial, especially when traveling or interacting with people from diverse backgrounds.
In this guide, we’ll explore nine situations where using your left hand can be considered rude, and why it’s important to be mindful of these customs.
Whether you’re traveling for business or leisure, knowing the proper etiquette can help you avoid unintentional offenses.
Here are nine situations where you should be mindful of which hand you use:
1. Shaking Hands:
Using your left hand to shake hands is generally seen as rude around the world. This includes countries like Ethiopia, Japan, and India.
In the U.S., while it may be forgivable if you have something in your right hand, it’s still not ideal. The term “left-handed handshake” itself is widely understood as being synonymous with false promises.
Therefore, when greeting someone or sealing an agreement with a handshake, you should generally use your right hand.
2. Offering a Gift:
If you are in India, you should never use your left hand to give a gift. In both Muslim and Hindu cultures, the left hand is seen as unclean.
The correct way to offer a gift to someone from these cultures is by using your right hand or both hands. However, if you use your left hand alone to present a gift, the person may reject your gift entirely.
Using the right hand or both hands signifies respect and the value placed on the gift and the recipient.
3. Receiving Anything:
Taking an object with your left hand is taboo in many cultures. In countries like India, your left hand is associated with impure tasks, including personal hygiene habits and other unclean things, like taking off your shoes.
Receiving items, whether it’s a gift, change, or any other object, with your right hand or both hands shows you respect and appreciation for the object someone is handing you. It also ensures you don’t inadvertently insult someone from a different culture.
4. Eating:
Multiple cultures across the globe frown upon eating with your left hand. In Ethiopia, for example, most people don’t serve meals with utensils.
Instead, meals come with flatbread that you tear and use to eat the other food on the table. Ethiopians associate the left hand with bathroom habits, just like India. So, using it to hold your food in Ethiopia is sure to earn you looks of disgust.
5. Pointing:
Pointing is a common gesture that’s especially necessary when you don’t have a full grasp of the local language. However, pointing with the wrong hand or in the wrong way can come off as rude.
In Malaysia, pointing with your index finger on either hand is considered insulting. Instead, people point using their thumbs, particularly their right thumb, as the left hand is seen as unclean.
6. Touching Someone:
Many cultures view the left hand as unclean because it’s associated with personal hygiene or dirty tasks. Therefore, touching someone with your left hand is generally considered a bad idea.
If you are in a Muslim country, you shouldn’t use your left hand to tap someone on the shoulder or give a pat on the back, no matter how well-meaning you are. Doing so is likely to insult the person.
7. Exchanging Money:
In many countries, exchanging money with either hand is acceptable, even in some that typically view the left hand as impure, like Ethiopia.
This is because many view money itself as an unclean substance. However, in Middle Eastern countries, touching money with your left hand is considered rude.
When reaching for your wallet or handling money in Middle Eastern countries, always use your right hand.
8. Doing Almost Anything in Ghana:
In Ghana, the left hand is specifically called the “toilet hand,” and the people there don’t take kindly to using it for almost anything in public.
Whether you are waving hello, eating, exchanging money, or doing anything else public-facing, you should use your right hand.
In fact, in Ghana they even greet people from right to left. If you are meeting a group of people at once, you should always start on the right and move to the left, regardless of age.
9. Writing in Japanese:
The Japanese won’t think you’re rude if you write Japanese with your left hand. However, doing so makes writing Japanese much harder.
Japanese characters rely on pulling strokes that move from left to right. If you use your left hand, you will have to push the stroke instead, which is much more difficult.
This situation, unlike the others, is presented not as a matter of rudeness, but of practicality and ease when writing Japanese characters.
Alicia Richards