This came up in the thread "Phrases that don't travel."

People in different countries, maybe even different regions in the same country, sometimes have different ideas about what you need to do or say to be considered polite.

New Yorkers, for example, have a reputation among us Midwesterners for being brusque, self-centered, loud, and impatient.

In Minnesota, we have the concept of Minnesota nice.

Do people from other places seem impolite to you? Have you ever been accused of being impolite, when you were only following the customs of your own home area, in a place where people behave differently?

If so, please post your stories here.

I will have a few stories of my own, shortly.