Hello

In Switzerland all people greet each other with three air kisses. Kiss-kiss-kiss, left-right-left. This is a sign that you know ze Swiss, since right-left-right would be totally wrong. As wrong as just doing two kisses. This causes a problem sometimes when you have lots of international friends. For example my English neighbour, she (and I!) would be appalled if we were to kiss-kiss-kiss. No way Jose. So when you have several friends over at the same time you have to keep your tongue in the right mouth. So to speak. English - never touch! In fact this goes for most English-speaking countries except for the US - air kiss twice. Northern Europeans - hug. But not close, body-touching not preferrable. Asia - nod respectfully. Africa - that hand thing they've got going on. Knock-knock-knock hands together. This is funny since ze Germans and ze Swiss are so formal otherwise. Or perhaps that's why? The only way to get close to a person is to greet. Then they are flabbergasted, what to do next? Ze Swiss don't even have words to say I love you. In high German it's "Ich liebe dich", but in Swiss German that's "Ich habe dich gern" meaning I like you. Says it all, doesn't it?