Taboos

Hi Ahava,

Don't wear your shoes into a Japanese house. And don't stick your chopsticks into your rice and leave them standing there-- my wife will murder you for either of these offenses! (She also gets angry if I eat breakfast in the living room, but I don't believe that is a cultural taboo.)

Hi Mister Micawber,

I thought of putting this post under this category. However it seems to me less persons visit here. Sorry for that. Thank you for your ideas. Thanks.

I understand your assumption, Ahava, but we should try to keep organized! Hopefully, other members and guests interested in cultural differences will explore this forum.

You might attract more responses by posting more specific topics (both subject and message), like 'Japanese social taboos?'

Just a suggestion.

This is quite dificult to answer as your own culture's taboos only become aparent to you when you compare them to another culture's taboos or lack therof! What is a taboo in one culture can be a positive thing in another.

Here are some taboos as far as England is concerned:

Behavioural taboos

Picking your nose
Belching
Scratching your groin area
Haras

Thank you for your ideas. Those are really helpful. I found something about gift taboos, for example in America never give a lily as a gift at any time other than Easter. Could you please give me some other ideas about gift taboos? Thank you very much.

Lillies: older people in England seem to associate white lillies with death and funerals, although younger people even have them at weddings and as gifts. I would love my boyfriend to give me some beautiful lillies, but my mother wouldn't have them in the house.

I suppose another form of taboo would be superstitions? This is behaviour that superstitious people think will cause bad luck. I hate superstitions as I think they just breed fear and are not rational.

A few English ones are:
do not walk under a ladder (leaning against something)
mayflowers are unlucky
when you finish a meal you must not leave your knife and fork crosse

Thank you nona the brit. Your notes are valuable to me, especially the one about the lily. And the others are much fun. I believe my students would be curious and love to know about these. Thank you.

Ah, I know dozens of superstitions as my mother is very superstitious and I was brought up to worry about these things. Perhaps that's why I despise them so now!

A few more

'knock on wood' for luck.
Four leaf clovers are lucky.
White heather is lucky.
It is very unlucky to spill salt. If you do, you must immediately throw a pinch of salt over your left should

Interesting really!
Yes, I believe taboo is related to superstition in some way, and fear also, for example, people here are afraid of death, so one is not supposed to say anything related about a living person, otherwise that is believed to bring bad luck to that person who is talked about. Superstition is not good in any way, however, taboos are interesting for language learners to know so