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Rules of Intimacy

This is a very funny look at the rules of intimacy: space, conversation, greetings and nudity among the French, Americans, British (and Germans and Finns). Simon Kuper is a Brit living in France. He gets it right in “Don’t touch me, I’m British”, featured on FT.com. There are a lot of gems in this piece, but these lines stood out for me – “Generalising grossly: to Americans, conversation doesn’t imply intimacy.” And vice versa – “In France… you always flirted whether you fancied someone or not. The flirting meant nothing.”- So true. Lists of “Do’s and don’ts” are never set in stone, but there is always a seed of truth in them.

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