Note to recorder:
American English, please ;)
Some Americans I know who have just moved to Germany complain that they get “stared at” all the time in public places. “Look at someone like that on the subway in New York and you’d get mugged!” they tell me.
Eye contact is a nonverbal code that communicates information about respect and status. Different cultures develop different codes over generations. They are engrained in our subconscious, but we’re often completely unaware of how they are affecting us.
