10 Things You Should Never Do With Your Left Hand
Updated: Sep. 21, 2021Don't be caught doing any of these things with your left hand.
Open the left-hand side doors
Using your left hand to open any of the car doors on the left-hand side of your car increases the risk of “dooring” accidents (where a bicycle rider coming up alongside of the car gets hit by an opening car door). If you open the door with your right hand—a method known as the “Dutch reach“—you’re forced to pivot toward the left side of the car, which means you’re more likely to see a bicycle coming up on your left.
Using your iPhone to talk on the phone
“If you’ve got an iPhone, you’re likely to get better reception if you hold it in your right hand (and right ear) during a call,” according to a report commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers regarding how effectively different smartphones caught and sent radio signals. “This could be because the left-left combination adds a greater obstruction between the phone’s antenna and the wireless signal than a right-right combination would,” suggests Quartz, a business thought leadership publication in its post about the report.
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When communicating in sign-language
When signing, it doesn’t matter which hand you use, as long as you pick a hand and stick with it. “You should not switch back and forth between dominant hands,” advises Signing Savvy. “Most signers will be able to understand your signs no matter which hand you use as the dominant hand.” So if you’ve been signing with your right as dominant, don’t switch, mid-conversation, to signing with the left.
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Passing objects in India
In India, the left hand is hand associated with personal hygiene—and that includes putting on and taking off your shoes. It’s also considered generally impure. That’s why you should never use it to pass an item—be it the salt and pepper shaker or a business card—to another person. In fact, some people in India will refuse to accept an object that’s been passed using the left hand.
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Touching food in India
For the same reasons it’s considered rude to pass an object using your left hand in India, it’s also considered poor form in India to allow your left hand to come into contact with food, including serving yourself from a platter or eating off your own plate with it.
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Eating in Ethiopia
The Ethiopian style of eating forgoes utensils and individual plates in favour of breaking off pieces of “injera,” a flatbread, to scoop food up from communal bowls straight into your mouth. But only the right hand is to be used for this. As in India, people in Ethiopia are trained to use their left hand for “bathroom” purposes, so the left hand is considered “dirty.”
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Exchanging money in the Middle East
In the Middle East, it’s considered rude to touch money with your left hand. It’s also rude to pick anything up with your left hand. And as in Ethiopia and India, it’s considered rude to eat with the left hand in the Middle East.
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Anything in Ghana
The right side is always the “right” side in Ghana, where it’s considered taboo to use your left hand for pretty much anything.
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Write in Japanese
Well, it’s not so much that you should never write in Japanese with your left hand and more about the fact that when you do, you’re going to be working against yourself. The strokes that make up Japanese lettering are all written left to right, and it’s more difficult to push a stroke from left to right than to pull it, according to Sue Umezaki, an American living in Japan for the past 15 years.
Here’s more practical advice for Canadians travelling to Japan for the first time.
Shake hands, pretty much anywhere
In all of the aforementioned countries, where the left hand is considered dirty, shaking hands using the left hand would be out of the question. But it’s also out of the question virtually everywhere else in the world. In fact, colloquially across North America, the term “left-handed handshake” is considered an insult and refers to insincere promises.
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