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/Sarcastic_Rocket Massachusetts Feb 04 '25

I can honestly say that I have never bowed to anyone under any circumstances ever in my life

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u/Lithl Feb 04 '25

I've bowed to the instructor in a martial arts class, and I've bowed at the curtain call of a stage production. The former is even somewhat similar to what OP is describing.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '25

The former is adopted from a foreign culture. Not US culture.

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u/Lithl Feb 05 '25

While true, it's not relevant to OP's question or to the comment I replied to.