Youve
enjoyed your lunchand asked for the bill in your chopped up,
broken Swahili or Greek or Mandarin, using the trusty language app on
your phone. The bills appeared, and its sitting in front of you
with a number at the bottom. Now what?Do
you pay the exact amount? Or do you round up to the nearest
wholenumber and say keep the change? Or do you switch from your
language app to your trusty tip calculator app and figure out a
percentage? If so, what percentage? You dont know, do you?
You
feel you dont want to not tip, but then maybe the place where you
are finds tipping offensive.
That
might sound absurd to you, but not every country feels the same way
about tipping. Some societies see tipping as a bribe or a way for the
customer to feel superior. Its perceived as a slight.But
not tipping at all or tipping too little can be equally
insulting.
Or
theres the question of tipping too much and risking being seen
some kind of mark or clueless tourist. You dont want that
either.
Tipping
can be a cultural nightmare if you dont know the custom of the
country youre in.
Well,
it can be if youre a traveler who cares about your surroundings,
blending in, and doing the right thing. We know travelers exist who
care about none of that stuff, but youre not that traveler.
Youre
the traveler who acknowledgesthey do things differentabroad.
You have no interest in imposing your cultural norms on another
society.
So
before you get on your plane or your boat or bus or train, learn a
little about how things work in the country youre traveling to.
You need not become an expert, but knowing a little about cultural
norms can go a long way.
Weve put together a convenient guide summarizing the tipping customs in each of the 30 most-visited countries around the world in 2018.
And you never know, if the country youre visiting is on this list, you might know how to deal with that bill sitting on the table in front of you.
You might discover youre not so clueless.You got this.
1.
France
