People In Other Countries Are Weirded Out By How Much Americans Smile
Smiling is a big part of American culture. When we pass strangers in the street, thank the server at a restaurant, or squeeze past someone in the grocery store, we flash them our pearly whites. While this act may seem like a small way to spread positivity, people from other countries say that they find it unsettling. Tourists within those countries are easily marked as Americans when they smile too much or have perfect teeth. This smile-related gap tells a lot about nonverbal communication in other countries and how Americans have put pressure on showcasing the “perfect smile”. People from other countries find the American act of smiling a lot to be fake and call it ‘turkey teeth.’ We see smiling at others as a way of being polite, and for a lot of people, it’s something done subconsciously. For non-Americans, though, it’s weird. In the U.K., they have deemed this type of smile as “turkey teeth”, a derogatory term that links back to Britons who would come back from Turkey with cheap veneers. Even …
