As President Bush learned recently, getting a shoe thrown at your head doesn’t tend to say “I love you” in any language. It’s particularly insulting in the Arab world, where shoes are considered ritually unclean. Here are other ways to share deliberate disgust — or demonstrate unintentional cultural ignorance — across the globe.

• In Malaysia, resist patting children on their heads. The head is considered the body’s sacred temple.

• In Japan, don’t blow your nose into a napkin. The Japanese think walking around with a hankie full of mucus is disgusting.

• In Scandinavian countries, look into your host’s eye when saying “Skal!” or “Prost!” Looking toward the ground while toasting is rude. And throw ‘er back all at once. Otherwise, you’ll have bad sex for seven years.

• The thumbs-up-OK symbol is offensive to Iraqis and the British in the same way lifting the middle finger is to Westerners.

• Texas Longhorns fans know that the vertical horns sign means “Go, team!” Just don’t use it in Yugoslavia, where it means “You are a cuckold!”

• And please resist taking photographs of people in most Arab nations, and in some African and Asian countries. It is as if you are stealing their soul. You can, of course, take photos of yourself behaving badly and quickly upload them to Facebook.