UK vs. USA: Handshake

Of all the thoughts and behaviours that difference the UK and the USA*, the most startling to me is the least consequential: the handshake.

In the UK, two people use one hand each to give one shake, that being pumping the hands down then up once. In the US, the free hand grasps the other person’s elbow and then they shake each other’s arms for a while.

So in the UK it’s a ‘one hand, one shake’ and in the USA it’s ‘arm shakes’.

When I go in for a handshake but end up having my elbow grabbed and arm jiggled, it takes me off-guard each time. Not only is your personal space occupied without invitation but you feel awkward because the contact is lasting longer than expected. If that’s the way the culture’s taken it then that’s fine but it’s always been a puzzling ritual to watch or participate in.

* It would be amiss for me to imply either nation is homogenous in thoughts or behaviours. Yet there is a sense of cultural unity (a desire for independence, like in Scotland and California, is less about a lack of similarities and more about a stark difference in priorities). The UK and USA are like two nuclear families that are cousins to one another and the differences within each family/nation are like the different children.