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someguyfromcanada  ·  3408 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How to be polite

I try to. For example pointing with the index finger is considered very rude in some places. I do my research but I am sure I screw up all the time.

My favorite example of screwing up is when I went to France as a teenager. Several times when heading to the train station and getting lost I would ask people where the train station was by saying "Ou est la gare". (Where is the train station. Pronounced Gar) No one said anything the first several times but it turned out with my pronunciation I was actually asking "Where is the war?" (Pronounced Guerre).