A Few Small Afghanistan Culture Tips

...some a personal stories with some tips from one Korean friend which may help you

And check out a comprehensive Afghanistan culture tip section here!

Take a short breath

Afghanistan is a beautiful country. And for me it is a joy to learn more about Afghan culture and to be accepted as one of them. Here are a couple of tips I've learned just by daily interacting with Afghans.

I remember when I first came to Afghanistan and began to spend a lot of time with my students. I really began picking up some of their actions.

One thing that Afghans do as you tell them a story they inhale short breathes. It's as if you were telling a scary story.

In the beginning, I couldn't understand and was wondering what scared them so much. Later on I found out that is a part of their body language. Inhaling says that they agree or as we would say..."Mmm-mmmm."

Funny enough, after some weeks I began to do the same thing --I did it unconsciously. I wanted to stop doing it, but couldn't help it. I was afraid to go to my home country and being doing it because my friends would think that Afghans had scared me tremendously.

However, after about six weeks I stopped doing it. This is one of the funniest stories of me being in this interesting country.

And check out a comprehensive Afghanistan culture tip section here!

Touching each other's feet.

Many cultural lessons are to be learned in Afghanistan. This I have learned by interacting with women.

What I learned is that if one Afghan accidentally steps on someone's feet or touches them, Afghans will touch each others hands.

By this action they are saying, "Let's not fight".

The sweetest part of this story is when I started to do it too, a reward was waiting for me. My Afghan friends' eyes were looking at me with surprise and respect, because they didn't expect foreigners to know this small custom.