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The etiquette mistake you only learn by making it

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Marco Rossi ⭐ Helpful member
2 Jun 2026, 04:33

Six weeks in and I greeted my neighbour with a cheerful wave instead of the proper hello, and got the coldest look of my life. Turns out there's a whole ritual I didn't know existed. What's the small etiquette thing you got wrong before someone finally explained it — the mistake you can only really learn by making?

14 replies · page 2 of 2

Kwame Mensah 🏆 Community expert
18 Jun 2026, 06:19

There's also a generational layer to this — the handshake and eye-contact norms I got comfortable with among people my age turned out to be completely wrong with elders. Different rules depending on who you're actually talking to, which took me a while to notice.

Paolo Bianchi ⭐ Helpful member
22 Jun 2026, 17:26

Wore completely the wrong thing to a funeral because I assumed 'formal' meant the same thing it does back home. It very much did not. Learned to just ask directly about dress code now, even when it feels like a silly question.

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Chris Bennett ⭐ Helpful member
23 Jun 2026, 09:03

same. thought i was being polite, was very much not

Elena Popescu ⭐ Helpful member
27 Jul 2026, 14:48

Found this thread months late but it's exactly what I needed after a fairly cringe dinner last night. Marco's line about nobody telling you the rule until you've broken it is painfully accurate — and Rajesh's point further up about it depending heavily on where you are matches my experience too. Wish I'd found this sooner.