"Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" (Chua, 2011) and "Bringing up bébé: One American mother discovers the wisdom of French parenting" (Druckerman, 2012) are two recent global bestsellers belonging to a relatively new discursive genre: the intercultural parenting book. The purpose of this article is to present the first findings…

Brown and Levinson's ([1978] Politeness: Some universals in language use, Cambridge University Press, 1987) politeness theory has been criticized as being ethnocentric by displaying a Western preoccupation with autonomy and individualism. Many non-western societies, it is argued, are better understood by appealing to cultural discernment or group…

Although it may seem contradictory, when Spaniards "greet" each other in passing they often employ formulas associated with farewells such as "adios" ("bye") or "hasta luego" ("see you later"). This common practice contrasts with other languages like American English in which speakers use greeting…