Subscribe to our newsletter. Knowing a language without knowing its culture is like a baseball pitcher who can throw a mean curve ball but has never been in a ball park. I'm not saying you have to have been in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland to be able to speak German, but I am saying you don't really know the language until you also know something about the culture. Come on, you say.
Any idiot knows when to say good-bye.
Well, yes and no. Because we have already absorbed most of our own culture by the age of five or six, we later tend to make cultural assumptions that may or may not be appropriate for a different culture. Our culture teaches us what is appropriate to say and do. When we leave that culture, we can be at a disadvantage. So here are some links to information that can help you avoid a faux pas or two.