Greetings As A Social Custom For Immigrants Who Are Now In Canada

Each year, there are thousands and thousands of applicants who send in their intent to Canada, wanting to go to the country as immigrants. With Canada being a country with a strong economy and good policies, it is not surprising why plenty of people see this place as a good one to live in. Plus, being a country that is quite known all around the world, people choose this because adjusting would be a whole lot easier, given the tons of information available online and in books and publications.

 

Most of the resources that people can find about Canada are about the places and the food and stuff like that, which are usually meant for travelers and tourists. However, for immigrants, there is not enough information on other important things like social customs. This is very important because these people will be living in the country for a long time and learning about how things happen on a daily basis is something that they should be familiar with.

 

One of the important social customs that immigrants in Canada should know about would be greetings. Read on to learn more about them.

 

Meeting for the first time vs. meeting friends and family

 

When people in Canada meet for the first time, the customary way would be to shake hands as a part of introducing themselves. When they depart, they would shake hands as well.

 

Friends who meet would not shake hands. If they are close friends, they may go for short hugs especially if they are women.

 

For people who are family or are lovers, short and light kisses on the cheek is how they would greet each other. This is most especially practiced among those who are French-Canadians.

 

What can be seen as offensive or rude

 

Now, it is important to also understand what can be seen as offensive or rude while in Canada when it comes to greetings. For example, if a person does not shake the hand of someone who has just extended their hand, this is a no-no as it is seen by the other person as a rude act or an offensive thing to do.

 

It is not a secret that people in Canada are very polite people and so not shaking a person’s hand that has already been offered to them will not rest well with the locals and those who are in the country. Most of time, people who do not shake the hand of another person are usually those who may have a rift with that person before or when the other person has already been quite horrible to them. Shaking hands actually is a sort of greeting that shows acceptance of the other person or making peace, thus those with rifts who do not shake hands definitely reflects this.

 

 

 

Programs available at Global Visa Support were put together by experts, so you can become an immigrant in Canada as soon as possible: http://globalvisasupport.com/canada.html.

 

Talk to Global Visa Support’s in-house immigration consultant and get help on becoming an immigrant in Canada: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/contacts.html.