tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46713666937837330352024-12-19T03:26:17.170+00:00Culture Bumps is a collection of confusing, strange, irritating, embarrassing, or amusing situations in intercultural communication. If you're interested in cultural differences, you'll love this site!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4671366693783733035.post-19731946177675712582013-09-15T21:01:00.000+01:002014-09-08T19:01:12.529+01:00"When I visited Tallinn, Estonia, some years back my boyfriend and I stayed with a local host family: an Estonian man, his Russian wife and their son. The first time I met my host "mother", she seemed friendly, but we had barely said 'hello' and 'nice to meet you' when she asked: 'Do you believe in God?' I was taken aback by her questioning. I don't believe in God, but because I didn't know why she was asking, I didn't dare to say so and just muttered something vague, feeling very uncomfortable. Questions were racing through my head: Why did she want to know? Was she deeply religious and only wanted equally religious guests in her house? Was she worried about what was going to happen under her roof if she let my boyfriend and me share a room? <br /><br />Years later I read online that asking about one's beliefs or religion is very common in Russia when meeting new people. It's considered a bit like small talk: a topic to get the conversation going so you can get to know someone better. In Sweden, we're the opposite: we tend to avoid topics like religion or politics with people unless we know them well."<br /><br />A.L. (female), Sweden<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/culturebumps/main</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2