My Life in China

I have noticed it before in Japanese movies but now I see it on a daily basis, a lot of Asian girls cover their mouth when laughing or when they are embarrassed. This tends to be especially true of Japanese and Korean girls, the Chinese do it too but not to such an extent. So I became curious of the reason, at first I thought it had some relation to that they don't wish to show their teeth, as exposing teeth is considered rude and bad taste in some Asian countries. That might be true for laughing but why do it when they are embarrassed? So I asked some Korean and Japanese girls here at school, the answer it turns out is that covering your mouth is a sign of your shame. But why don't the boys do it then? According to some of my students it's gender specific, not covering your mouth when laughing or being embarrassed is less lady-like so they cover their mouths to be more lady-like.