I have a culture question…
I know that in Morocco when you are a woman who meets another woman for the first time, you kiss cheeks.
If you are a Moroccan woman going to say, a job interview, and the boss/interviewer is a woman, do you still kiss cheeks? Or do you shake hands? How do you address her, as “akhti” or "lalla"or …?
Cheeks kissing is not only for a first time meeting. You must have noticed that you don’t really kiss cheeks, your cheeks meet with the other lady’s and your kisses end up in the air.
In a professional context, you don’t kiss cheeks at all! Oh no! You just shake hands, and you address the lady as Madame mostly.
keeping it in the subject, do men also meet cheeks with women too. or is it only to people you know ?
:huh:
Kissing a close member of your family or a friend is OK but kissing an acquaintance, a boss, a person you dont know well, is a bad habit we have in Morocco.
Sometimes in sport ceremony on the Moroccan tele, you see some bearded scrafy old man kissing a young girl or boy in the cheeks or close to lips … that should not be allowed, a light hand shake and well done should be enough, not a funny stare with a very tight hand shake, a big hug and a wet kiss …
And of course not only for bearded scrafy old men :fouet:
Thanks, SM and all. I did understand about the really kissing air thing, haha I just didn’t know how else to say it.
I was curious because I have a language evaluation for my Moroccan Arabic in a few weeks, and there will be a Moroccan woman who will interview me. We are here in the US, and she is a graduate student so it’s not much of an uneven power relationship so I think we’ll be on a first name basis.
It just made me wonder anyway. Thanks again!
Let me answer Muneeb’s question first.
Some people would kiss cheeks with the other gender: family members, classemates, etc. Most people don’t, especially religious ones.
Autumn, even if it will be just a student, probably your age, who will be interviewing you… I say that you better keep it a hand shake. It’s not about the power balance, it’s about the degree of familiarity you have with the person. In Morocco, I’d greet a girl kissing her cheeks (in the air :D) even if I don’t know her when she accompanies someone else I know. But when I am in a formal meeting, it’s just a hand shake.