“Left” Out. Left-Hand Etiquette Around the World in 9 Points
Using your left hand for everyday tasks is perfectly normal in the U.S. Try it in certain other countries, though, and you may earn a few dirty looks.
In many cultures around the world, using your left hand is taboo. From eating to exchanging gifts to paying for a souvenir, there are many situations where using your left hand is a bad idea.
We’ll explain why you shouldn’t use your left hand in certain cultures and situations as well as discuss why the world views lefties the way it does. As it turns out, left-hand use hasn’t always been approved in the Western world, either.
1: Shaking Hands
In the U.S., using your left hand to shake hands may be forgivable if you have something in your right hand, but it’s not a great idea. The term “left-handed handshake” is synonymous with false promises.
In fact, left-handed handshakes are seen as rude around the world. From Ethiopia to Japan to India, using your left hand to greet someone or seal a deal is a big no.
2: Offering a Gift
If you’re in India, you should never use your left hand to give a gift. In both Muslim and Hindu cultures, the left hand is seen as unclean.
You can use your right hand or both hands to offer a gift to someone of this culture. But, if you use your left hand alone, the person may reject your gift entirely.
3: Receiving Anything
Taking an object with your left hand is taboo in many cultures. In countries like India, your left hand is associated with impure tasks, including personal hygiene habits and other unclean things, like taking off your shoes.
Receiving items with your right hand or both hands shows you respect and appreciation for the object someone is handing you. It also ensures you don’t insult someone from a different culture.
4: Eating
Multiple cultures frown on eating with your left hand. In Ethiopia, for example, most people don’t serve meals with utensils. Instead, meals come with flatbread that you tear and use to eat the other food on the table.
Ethiopians associate the left hand with bathroom habits, just like India. So, using it to hold your food is sure to earn you looks of disgust.
5: Pointing
Pointing is a common gesture that’s especially necessary when you don’t have a full grasp of the local language. However, pointing with the wrong hand or in the wrong way can come off as rude.
In Malaysia, pointing with your index finger on either hand is insulting. Instead, people point using their thumbs, particularly their right thumb, as the left hand is seen as unclean.
6: Touching Someone
Many cultures view the left hand as unclean because it’s associated with personal hygiene or dirty tasks. So, it makes sense that touching someone with your left hand would be a bad idea.
If you’re in a Muslim country, you shouldn’t use your left hand to tap someone on the shoulder or give a pat on the back, no matter how well-meaning you are. Doing so is likely to insult the person.
7: Exchanging Money
In many countries, even in some that typically view the left hand as impure, like Ethiopia, exchanging money with either hand is acceptable. That’s because many view money as an unclean substance.
However, in Middle Eastern countries, touching money with your left hand is rude. When reaching for your wallet, always use your right hand.
8: Doing Almost Anything in Ghana
In Ghana, the left hand is called the “toilet hand,” and the people there don’t take kindly to using it for anything in public. Whether you’re waving hello, eating, exchanging money, or anything else public-facing, you should use your right hand.
In fact, in Ghana they even greet people from right to left. If you’re meeting a group of people at once, always start on the right and move to the left, regardless of age.
9: Writing in Japanese
The Japanese won’t think you’re rude if you write Japanese with your left hand. However, doing so makes writing that much harder.
Japanese characters rely on pulling strokes that move from left to right. If you use your left hand, you’ll have to push the stroke instead, which is much more difficult.
Why the Left Hand is So Taboo
According to Smithsonian Magazine, about two-thirds of the world sees the left hand as unclean or makes it more difficult to use for daily tasks. Many languages are geared towards right-handed writers, and many cultures associate the left hand with using the bathroom.
Even the word “left” has negative connotations in many languages. In German, “linkisch” means left as well as “awkward.” In Mandarin, the word for left is also synonymous with weird, incorrect, and wrong.
A Long History of Discrimination
Using your left hand is acceptable in most Western cultures today, but that wasn’t always the case. As late as the 1940s, Europeans sought to retrain natural left-handedness because they thought it led to mental problems.
In the Middle Ages, people often accused those who used their left hand for daily tasks of witchcraft. Using your left hand at that time could literally get you burned at the stake!
Left-Handers Today
Today, the world’s feelings about using one’s left hand are mixed. In Western countries, left-handedness is more rare than right-handedness, but it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
However, in Middle Eastern countries, people who are left-handed have to learn to use their right hands a lot because people there teach that the left hand is only for dirty tasks. China has one of the lowest populations of left-handed people, not because it’s actually rare there, but because it’s hard to write Chinese characters with the left hand. So, many would-be lefties learn to use their right hand at an early age.
The Benefits of Left-Handedness
Though using your left hand is taboo in many cultures, research suggests there are benefits to being left-handed. According to one study from the University of Oxford, left-handed people show more coordination between the right and left sides of the brain.
More coordination between the two sides of the brain could give lefties an edge when it comes to language. It also means lefties’ brains are organized a bit differently, allowing them to potentially view the world in a way that righties can’t.
The Risks of Being Left-Handed
Other than potentially insulting people in other countries and cultures, lefties also face elevated risks of certain health and behavioral issues. For example, left-hand dominant people are more likely to suffer from dyslexia and other learning problems.
According to at least one study, lefties also experience higher rates of breast cancer. They also may consume alcohol at higher rates than their right-handed peers.
How You Become Left-Handed
Only an estimated 10% of the world’s population prefers to use their left hand over their right hand. That said, the number of left-handed people is increasing, possibly because the stigma against left-handedness has decreased or disappeared in many countries.
Still, being left-handed is relatively rare and probably comes from your genes. If you have a left-handed parent, you’re much more likely to be left-handed than if both your parents are righties.
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