Ecuador

Greetings

Man greeting Man - Men usually shake hands when greeting one. At a first meeting a handshake will suffice and is sometimes combined with slight touches on the arms and/or elbows. Good friends will usually hug.

Woman greeting Woman - At a first meeting, a light handshake will suffice. Some women will hold onto to forearms rather than hands. Friends and close acquaintances generally kiss each other once on the cheek while lightly holding both hands.

Man greeting Woman - At a first meeting a regular handshake will do. Friends, family and close acquaintances will share a light kiss on the cheek.

Personal Space & Touch

• Ecuadorians are generally comfortable standing close to one another while talking. One to two feet is normal. It can be considered rude to back up or away from someone while they are speaking.
• There is a fair amount of touching between men and men, men and women and women and women while conversing.

Eye Contact

• Ecuadorians favor direct eye contact over indirect. Maintaining eye contact is expected and not doing so is considered impolite.
• During conversations sustained eye contact is commonplace.

Gestures

• Making a slicing a gesture across one’s neck indicates having no money when someone asks to borrow some.
• Try to avoid yawning and be sure to cover your mouth with a hand if you do yawn.
• Slapping the bottom of one elbow with the open palm of the other hand means someone is cheap.

Views of Time

• Ecuadorians tend to place more emphasis on people and relationships than to the strict adherence of set schedules.
• While the bus, train, and plane schedules will be adhered to for the most part, showing up one to two hours late to a party or function is quite common.

Gender Roles

• Work opportunities for women are varied and available depending on social class.
• Women are still expected to do most if not all of the cooking and cleaning.
• As a woman going to local bars and clubs unaccompanied is not advised.
• Local men can be somewhat aggressive in their pursuit of foreign women. Women who are firm yet somewhat friendly in rejecting these advances tend to gain the respect of men.
• It is not very common or accepted for women to drink hard alcohol. Wine is more appropriate.

Taboos

• When demonstrating the height of something, be aware that holding the palm face down is reserved for animals. For people, hold the palm sideways with the thumb on top.

Law & Order

• The legal drinking age is 18, but it is not heavily enforced.
• Being in possession of small quantities of drugs is highly illegal and usually results in serious jail time for foreigners. If you are caught trying to take drugs in or out of the country, it is an automatic lengthy jail sentence.

Dress

• Ecuadorians value being well dressed and nicely groomed. The inland cities are more formal than the coastal towns.
• For men: conservative suits with white shirts and conservative ties. On the coast, a lighter colored more casual clothing may be okay.
• For women: dark stylish business suits or dresses and nice shoes.

Titles & Business Cards

• Titles are very important and it is best to address people directly by using their professional title only. If they do not have professional titles like, Doctor, Lawyer, etc, they should be addressed as Mr., Mrs., or Miss, plus their surnames.
• It is advisable, although not required, to have one side of your business card translated into Spanish. Present your business card with the Spanish side facing the recipient.

Meetings

• Arriving on time for meetings is important even though you may be kept waiting up to a half an hour or so.
• Beginning with small talk helps establish a base for the relationship, after which discussion of business matters can begin. It is best to allow your host to begin the business discussion.
• Appropriate small talk topics include: family, work, history of one’s place of origin. Avoid talking and asking about sex, human rights, and class issues.

Negotiations

• Avoid hard selling and any sort of conflict or confrontation. Saving face is important to Ecuadorians and they respond much better to the soft sell with indirect communications.
• Ecuadorians can become animated when negotiating, be sure to not mistake this for aggression.
• Decisions are usually made from the top.
• At the markets you can always negotiate the initial asking price. you can also ask for a total discount if you are buying more than one item, or ask for a bundle price. It's hard for visitor to do this, it is an ART, so you can ask someone else to bargain for you it is totally acceptable.

Gift Giving

• Gifts are not usually brought to a first meeting.
• If invited to an Ecuadorian’s house, it is appropriate to bring flowers (avoid lilies and marigolds as they mean death), fine wine, spirits, and/or chocolates.
• Make sure that gifts are nicely wrapped.

In the Classroom

• Dress at most schools is casual to upscale casual. Students usually wear shirts, sweaters, slacks or jeans most of the time.
• Grades are usually given on a 0 to 40 scale with forty being the highest. The minimum passing grade is usually a 23.