12: Gift-Giving: Tips & Taboos

12: Gift-Giving: Tips & Taboos

Author: Oops, Your Culture's Showing! ©2018: Dean Foster, Tom Peterson, and Torin Peterson December 13, 2018 Duration: 49:21

’Tis the season for giving gifts around the world, and for our final episode of 2018! This episode, Dean and Tom present you with tips for giving culturally-appropriate gifts in the U.S., Europe, and East Asia, along with plenty of taboos to avoid as well. For instance, you’ll learn how to give money to a friend on their birthday in New Orleans, whether to give someone an even or odd number of flowers in Europe, and why giving a colleague four clocks in a white box is not exactly the best idea in China (12:00, 33:30, 38:40). While we’re wrapping things up (nicely, we hope) for 2018, we’ll be back soon with even more episodes in 2019. Bonne année à tous nos amis!

Subscribe today to ensure that the gift of new episodes arrives promptly in your feed in 2019. In the meantime, have a cultural question or episode idea for Dean and Tom? Reach out on Twitter and Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com


Ever find yourself in a situation where a simple gesture or comment lands completely wrong, all because of an unspoken cultural rule you never knew existed? That’s the territory explored in Oops, Your Culture's Showing! Hosted by Dean Foster alongside Tom and Torin Peterson, this podcast digs into the hilarious and often awkward moments where cultural differences come to light. Each episode feels like a conversation with well-traveled friends who’ve been there, analyzing real-life stories of social faux pas, misunderstood traditions, and the subtle norms that govern behavior around the globe. The tone is light and comedic, rooted in personal experience rather than dry academic lecture, making the exploration of societies and places genuinely engaging. You’ll hear the hosts dissect why certain actions are perfectly polite in one context and a major blunder in another, all while laughing at their own misadventures. It’s a blend of comedy and genuine education, perfect for anyone curious about the world or preparing to navigate it. Tune in to this podcast for a reminder that we’re all constantly revealing our cultural backgrounds, often at the most unexpected moments.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 86

Oops, Your Culture's Showing!
Podcast Episodes
30: Joy To The World! (Part 2 of 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:22
In the finale of their two-part gleeful gabfest, Dean and Tom continue to delight in the complexities of humor, language, and culture. Then, they elatedly explore similarities and differences in how joy is expressed comm…
29: Joy To The World! (Part 1 of 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:03
What’s so funny? In this jolly episode, Dean and Tom gleefully gab about what is, and is not, considered funny across cultures – and how laughter can also be interpreted differently depending on where you are. Plus, Gram…
Celebrating The Great Beyond! Special Reissue [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:43
With All Hallows’ Eve & Día de los Muertos rapidly approaching, it’s a frighteningly perfect time to reissue our episode on death celebrations and festivals across cultures, “Who Died?”, from July 2019. The episode descr…
28: US Norms. Weird. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:14
In this episode, Dean and Tom dig into the cultural origins of US norms & practices that can come off as a bit odd to our global neighbors – from the beach, to the restaurant, to the bathroom (not necessarily in that ord…
27: France. Mais Oui. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:28
Bonjour mes amis! In this episode, Dean and Tom promenade along the riverbanks of French culture, from Descartes and Cartesian Logic to French cheese, wine, champagne, fashion, and art, to bringing dogs inside of restaur…
British Invasion! Special Reissue [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:43
Oi! With the U.K. being in the news a lot lately – from the G7 summit to Wimbledon to England’s heartbreaking loss in the Euro 2020 final – we feel it’s bloody high time that we reissue our U.K. (and U.S.) focused episod…
26: Pets Around The World! Meow. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:29
While remembering pets both old and new, Dean and Tom take the op-purr-tunity to discuss which animals do and don’t constitute pets across dif-fur-rent cultures. (Without any pet puns in the actual episode, we just had t…
25: Change (or Lack Thereof) in the Pandemic. Do-dodo-doo! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:28
Fully vaccinated, Dean and Tom jump into a discussion of changes, as well as the lack of changes, in behaviors and cultures resulting from the pandemic this past year (and thankfully, they also decline to bungee-jump nak…
24: Baltics, Balkans, and Shrooms? Yum! (Part 2 of 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:51
In the grand finale of their two-part shroom-inations, Dean and Tom return to the Balkans, where they find literal dividing lines in Sarajevo as well as cultural similarities & differences between Serbia and Croatia, plu…
23: Baltics, Balkans, and Shrooms? Yum! (Part 1 of 2) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:39
In this new episode (recorded September 2020, when it was still warm enough in the northeastern U.S. to record outdoors!), Dean and Tom repel giant squirrels while they ruminate (or perhaps shroom-inate?) on mushroom-pic…