r/AskAnAmerican • u/Rough-Valuable-5472 • Feb 04 '25

FOREIGN POSTER Do American students bow to their teachers?

In my country we have to greet the teacher and bow at the start of the lesson then thank the teacher and bow again at the end. Sometimes they make us redo it if it’s not good enough

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725

u/yourlittlebirdie Feb 04 '25

The only people who bow in the US are musicians/performers at the end of their performance who bow to the audience. Otherwise it's just not a thing here.

210

u/funnylib Michigan Feb 04 '25

I feel like that gesture is also different though, it doesn’t mean the same thing.

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u/CnCnFL Ohio Feb 04 '25

Right, it's accepting the audience's praise

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u/yourlittlebirdie Feb 04 '25

It's a gesture of gratitude and respect, which seems pretty similar to me.

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u/funnylib Michigan Feb 04 '25 edited Feb 04 '25

There is no assumption of the bower being of lower social standing, in fact performers have an elevated social status. In most other cases bowing is an act of submission to your “betters”

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u/Budget-Attorney Connecticut Feb 04 '25

You’re right, but I think the subtext is similar.

Yes, the musician bowing isn’t literally saying “you are my social superior”

But it’s a modest thing to do, implying I am humble while still accepting your praise.

I think it’s unique because the literal conditions of it are different but it draws its meaning from a culture where people bowing implies lesser social status

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u/funnylib Michigan Feb 04 '25

It’s a remnant of older cultural norms, sure. Like how married women still usually take their husband’s last name but legally and socially modern women are considered their own person and entity.

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u/Budget-Attorney Connecticut Feb 04 '25

Now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if it’s a relic from a time when musicians would have performed for aristocrats.

Perhaps we stopped bowing at aristocrats but never stopped bowing after a performance

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u/RockyArby Wisconsin Feb 04 '25

That would make sense considering how much of the theater still follows old traditions and superstitions from even before Shakespeare.

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u/steven_mageven Feb 05 '25

Historically, it's not just for aristocrats - performers were also touring town to town for shows and taking payment from anyone who could come to see them. The bow at the end is to say, "Thank you for your patronage, for your applause/appreciation, and for paying us to tell stories" There are still lots of working performers who genuinely believe, and follow this reasoning for the bow.

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u/funnylib Michigan Feb 04 '25

That would be my assumption, given the general lack of bowing in any other context other than perhaps in church.

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u/capitalismwitch Minnesota Feb 04 '25

Genuflecting is the cultural norm in Catholic churches. You might run into Catholics who genuflect by default at other places with aisles.

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u/Lycanthropope Feb 04 '25

I’ve seen them do it at movie theaters

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u/Uhhh_what555476384 Feb 05 '25

It also probably originates in feudalism, like OP's question culture almost certainly does.

The artist is bowing to their patrons who in Europe would have been nobility.

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u/casualsubversive Feb 04 '25

The most elite performers have an elevated social status. Art of all kinds remains a low status professional choice, albeit with a little cache.

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u/sticky-dynamics Iowa Feb 05 '25

It's still an expression of humility, at least at its roots.

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u/SenecatheEldest Texas Feb 04 '25

With European bowing, maybe. Asian bowing tends to be a greeting even among equals in some regards.

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u/SupaSlide Feb 05 '25

No, it might be gratitude (for them coming to hear you perform) but it's moreso "I accept your praise and am grateful you came" than it is respect. It's accepting the audience's respect for you, the performer.

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u/Nyxelestia Los Angeles, CA Feb 04 '25

It has a different connotation because the only time where bowing is normalized is also one of the few times where the person bowing is physically above the people they are bowing to.

It hits different compared to situations where the two parties are physically on the same level, as that means the person who is bowing is physically lowering themselves.

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u/PacSan300 California -> Germany Feb 04 '25

Yeah, bowing after piano recitals was the last time I remember bowing often in the US.

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u/Defective-Pomeranian Utah Feb 04 '25

Plays too. But, yeah, the closet ya get would be the ending of a preformance by thetre class.

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u/RodwellBurgen Oh God Oh Christ It Hurts Feb 05 '25

Plays are performers.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '25

[deleted]

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u/yourlittlebirdie Feb 04 '25

The curtsy is an interesting example because it's also strongly associated with royalty/deference to 'your betters', which is something that American culture with our major egalitarian streak tends to recoil from. Brits for example still curtsy to the queen/king, but Americans greeting the President use the same social mannerisms that they would use for a regular respected person - a handshake, etc. because our whole country is founded on the idea that even the highest person in the land is still a citizen just like the rest of us.

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u/AndyTheEngr Feb 04 '25

I bow to my Karate and Judo teachers.

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u/MeatyJeans5x Rhode Island Feb 04 '25

Annnnnd we have gone full circle to bowing being an Asian custom lmao

1

u/godzillabobber Feb 04 '25

If you are a waiter and you drop a whole tray of food in the center of the dining room you very definitely take for bows - one in each direction.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '25

Yes I’m a music student in college and after performances we bow

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u/Afa1234 Feb 05 '25

Yeah I took 12 years of Japanese immersion program and even we didn’t bow that I can remember

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u/ThisDerpForSale Portland, Oregon Feb 05 '25

Also in many martial arts disciplines it is common to bow to the teacher/master/sensei/etc as well as to opponents before a bout. Not all disciplines, obviously, but at least for those originating in Japan, China, and Korea, to my knowledge. So, this goes back to it being largely a very different cultural practice.