> "Individuals will seek to raise the other person's status, and lower their own".<p>Isn't this the very definition of politeness, anywhere in the world?<p>I read the beginning of the Wikipedia article on Taarof:<p>> In the rules of hospitality, taarof requires a host to offer anything a guest might want, and a guest is equally obliged to refuse it. This ritual may repeat itself several times (usually three times) before the host and guest finally determine whether the host's offer and the guest's refusal are genuine, or simply a show of politeness. If one is invited to any house for food, then one will be expected to eat seconds and thirds. However, taarof demands that one can't go ahead and help themselves to more food after finishing their first helping. Good manners dictate that one must first pretend to be full, and tell the host how excellent the food was, and that it would be impossible to eat any more. The host is then expected to say one should not do taarof ("taa'rof nakon" - similar to "don't be polite!"), for which the appropriate response would be to say "no" two or three times, then pretend to cave in to the host's insistence and pile on the food<p>To be honest, in this particular situation, I don't see much of a difference (if any) to the area I am coming from (rural southern Germany). In my home area, it would certainly seem <i>very</i> strange to accept an offer to eat at someones house right away, without the usual "no, that's very nice of you, but I don't want to cause you any trouble", etc. dance. Eating for example at a relative's home, you would <i>never</i> ask for a second, and if a second was offered to you, the polite response would be to decline first. The host would then say something like "but really, there is so much left, don't be polite", and this would go on for 1-3 rounds, during which you are more or less expected to offer your second to other guests.<p>Regarding the taxi episode from the article: a few years ago, we were stranded in a snowy village in Austria. It would've been 3 hours by foot to our hotel. A friendly local drove us there. During the last minutes of the drive, I tried to offer this person some money out of gratitude, and it was a <i>very</i> long conversation that circled around my wife giving me discrete hints to offer him some money (but in such a way that he would be able to see that she was giving me hints), him politely hiding that he had noted her hints, me offering him some money, him refusing, me asking if he really didn't want to take any money, we are so grateful, etc. In the end, he didn't take any money, and it was clear he didn't want to. But it took nearly 5 minutes to clear that out.