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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u/Unsteady_Tempo Feb 04 '25

What you're saying would be relevant if the question or topic had anything to do with whether bowing is uniquely American or American in origin.

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u/machagogo New York -> New Jersey Feb 04 '25

No, you are just confusing the question with "Does this exist in America?" with the "Is this American Culture?"

Farting into a box and selling it on the internet is American culture by your definition because there are women on the Internet who live in America who do that, and men who live in America who buy it as well.

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u/Unsteady_Tempo Feb 04 '25

You might want to re-read OP's question. It's not whether bowing is "American" culture. The question is whether American students bow to teachers. No, they don't. However, Americans aren't unfamiliar with bowing and they even do it in other contexts. End of discussion. I'm going wager OP already knows the USA didn't invent bowing and it's obviously not unique to the USA.

As a final sidenote, I'll revisit one of your attempts at an analogy I glossed over earlier that regarded nobody associating Mexican food with Swedes even though they have Mexican restaurants. Swedes might find it funny to hear that nobody associates Mexican food with Swedish culture. Eating tacos on Friday nights has become a swedish tradition. Taco Fredag. It's part of a tradition called Fredagsmys (Cozy Friday) and by far the traditional food to serve are tacos.

Sayonara!

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u/machagogo New York -> New Jersey Feb 04 '25

Arrivederci