Mexico

Mexico is far less a single culture than a set of strong regional ones — Yucatán with its Maya substrate and its own cuisine, Oaxaca with sixteen indigenous language groups, Jalisco with tequila and mariachi, the industrial norteño border, and Mexico City absorbing all of it. What holds across them is a social grammar built on personal warmth and formality at the same time. You greet people individually, not as a room; you use usted with strangers and anyone older until invited otherwise; you do not open a transaction with a request before you have said buenos días. Skipping the greeting reads as genuine rudeness in a way it does not in the US or northern Europe. The day's rhythm follows food. Breakfast is real and often savory. Comida — the main meal — lands between 2 and 4pm and is meant to take two hours, ending in sobremesa, the unhurried talk after the plates are cleared. Dinner is late and light. Street food is not a lesser category here; the country's cuisine is UNESCO-listed and much of the best of it is cooked on a comal at a sidewalk stall. Cash still matters, especially for tips, which service workers depend on.