Cultural Awareness - Foot-in-Mouth Disease

A friend of mine had bought a flat in Krakow some time ago, and had decided to sell it. As I live in Krakow, and she lives in Dublin, she asked me if I could help by delivering keys to the Estate Agent, and occasionally representing her to interested parties. For this reason, I found myself in an empty flat one Saturday morning with an Estate Agent and a couple from Zakopane to discuss which furnishings they wished to have included in the sale of the flat, and which they wanted to get rid of. During this time, the husband received a phone call, and excused himself. In order to make smalltalk, I fell back on that old Anglo-Irish standard, the weather. I remarked that the summer was slowly disappearing (it was September, and the temperature had fallen to the low twenties during the day). This topic was taken up with enthusiasm by the estate agent and the lady, who then said that she had seen a woman out walking with her baby in a pram, and the baby was not wearing a hat! The tone in which she said this left us in no doubt that she felt it was far too cold to have a baby outside with no hat. The estate agent reacted suitably shocked, and said that some parents were truly irresponsible when it came to their children's welfare. As an example, he mentioned a couple who had a baby of no more than a month old asleep in a car-seat which they were carrying around in a hypermarket. The lady agreed that they were behaving really stupidly, bringing their children to a 'breeding-place for viruses'. At this point, I quietly mentioned that in Ireland it was a regular occurence for parents to bring their children with them when they went shopping, and that children don't wear hats or coats outside until the weather is much colder. The others were a little surprised and embarrased at this, but I explained the theory behind this, that in Ireland we haven't such extremes of temperature, so we are less sensitised to changes in temperature. They declared that it was an interesting theory, but I am quite sure that they thought I and my kind were mad. They were also probaby feeling a little foolish at their faux pas.
I remember feeling uch the same level of awkwardness when I was about 10, and my friend had just got a new bike. I had a go on it, and said it was obviously a Raleigh Burner (Raleigh's answer to the BMX), as it looked much cooler than a BMX, because most BMX's had the letters 'BMX' placed all over them. When he told me the new bike was in fact a BMX, I felt really stupid.
When we think about Cultural Awareness, we often forget how pervasive and deep-rooted our culture is. The above example is a lesson. We all know not to offend our business colleagues by referring to them by first names (or last names, as the case may be), and we all remember the golden rule of when in Rome..., but how often would you think that there are cultural differences in when to put a hat on a baby!? This potential gaffe is on the same level as telling your new boss you think dog-owners are stupid, only to find out in the next sentence that she has two Yorkshire terriers. Of course, we will never get any closer in a relationship if we do not offer any personal information regarding our likes and dislikes, or our tastes and opinions, but there are many ways to express our opinions without offending our audience. "I wouldn't bring a small baby to a hypermarket, as I would be afraid of catching a virus" is a fine way to express the same opinion to develop the conversation without calling any person -or nation- stupid and irresponsible!