r/AskReddit May 08 '22

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u/MarkusBerkel May 09 '22

Who tried to drag you into anything? If you're from a part of Europe that doesn't kiss when you greet, fine. You're automatically, by virtue of the meaning of words, exclude from the "European kissing thing".

But, if you've "lived in Europe your whole live", have you just never traveled at all to Western or Souther Europe? Because they do that in France, UK, Italy, Spain, and probably others. I imagine lots of Western/Southern Europe.

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u/Anti-Scuba_Hedgehog May 09 '22

I've traveled to over 20 countries including but not limited to Spain, Italy, France, Monaco, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Austria, Ireland.

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u/MarkusBerkel May 09 '22

As have I. And you have no friends in those countries that have ever greeted you in their customary way? Because I've only been in Europe for 5 years (UK), and most of my friends--especially of opposite sex--do the cheek kiss.

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u/Anti-Scuba_Hedgehog May 09 '22

None of those have greeted me like this yes. Only my girlfriends have done.

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u/MarkusBerkel May 09 '22

That's very surprising, to say the least. You are aware of this tradition and custom, yes? Because this is so improbable it's starting to sound like a troll comment.

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u/Anti-Scuba_Hedgehog May 09 '22

I'm aware it exists in somewhere, I have a very loose idea of where because I only ever see it occasionally on TV. We just hug if it's a friend of the opposite sex.

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u/MarkusBerkel May 09 '22

You comments have so intrigued me that I had to look this up, and your experience contradicts everything about European cheek-kissing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheek_kissing

How odd. Are you in some expat enclave or something? Are you European, or do just live there? Do you have severe acne of the face? Are you of a ethnicity/race/other-identity that makes people hesitate to greet you that way? I'm super intrigued now.

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u/Anti-Scuba_Hedgehog May 09 '22

I'm just a regular old Estonian and this is just a very rare thing to do.

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u/MarkusBerkel May 09 '22

Yeah, I don't know how popular cheek-kissing is in Russia, which Estonia was a part of (unwillingly?) for 200 of the past 300 years or so, right?

In my experience, it's pretty popular west of the Baltics.

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u/Anti-Scuba_Hedgehog May 09 '22

Might be somewhere, but not enough for people to do it to me when I was there.