As an expat living in the UAE, one gets to know lots of different nationalities and learn to respect other people's cultures.  We might not always agree with it and the way they are used to doing things, but we learn to accept it and we also expect from them to accept ours. 

One thing that was strange to us in the beginning, was that there is no such thing as telephone etiquette around here.  Someone at a company will not answer the telephone by saying "A-Z Technology services, this is Tom speaking, how may I assist you?"...No...They will say: "Yes?".  Then you would ask or tell them something and before you have completed whatever you were saying, all you hear is BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP.  They just put the phone down, no "thank you for calling, enjoy your day, goodbye", nothing.  In the morning at work, they will come up to you without greeting and just start talking about work.  These are things we are not used to but we learn to accept it. 

Today, me and my wife started decluttering our home, throwing away some old stuff and putting a few unused items up for sale.  My phone went crazy with people wanting to buy things and we had a lot of people in and out of our home today.  There were probably 12 items up for sale so we had quite a few people coming by to look at items, some bought an item or two and some left empty handed.

The whole day I've been noticing my nosy neighbor standing around checking us out.  On a previous occasion when we went camping for a weekend, we packed up the car and had to take a lot of things with us, including the barberque grill and camping chairs.  While we were packing the car, the neighbor's wife just entered our house without us seeing her, and she was looking around for things to buy as she thought we were moving.  As we returned from our camping trip, she stood outside watching us carrying all of our things back inside, but the next day she came knocking with a notebook and a pen, forcing herself through the door and my wife had to prevent her from entering with a broomstick, LOL!  TODAY, as the last person came for the last item, again my neighbor just walked in the door, interrupting me and my "customer", pointing at items in my home asking "What is the price of this? What is price of that?".  "Sir, excuse me, I am not moving and those things are certainly not for sale!"

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To us, this is very disrespectful.  We were taught that you do not enter someone else's house without knocking and you DO NOT interrupt people while they are talking.  If I respect your culture, please respect mine too.

But what is happening to RESPECT?  

Is it really just okay to walk into someone's home?  Is it really just okay to have no telephone etiquette?  Is it really just okay not to greet a person you are talking to, or was I taught the wrong way?