I’m half Persian, and am relatively immersed in middle eastern culture still, but I sincerely wonder how I would perform on the benchmark too!

> ... is a sophisticated system of ritual politeness that emphasizes deference, modesty, and indirectness.

I'm Irish and think we have a similar culture of indirectness and politeness...

In the countryside anyway we're rarely very blunt... everything indirect...

  "You'll have a cup of tea Mary?"
  "Ah no.. sure I'm only after a drop"
  "Ah go on... you will"
  "Not at all, I'm grand"
  "Go on, go on, go on you will" etc (as in Father Ted)

Hilarious, didn't know it had a name! I am maybe 1/4 persian, but get picked out as Persian, and was unknowingly indoctrinated in this form of behavior, though other parts of my ancestry do come out, my mother, scotch/english/irish ,says,useing her star treck metaphore, that I am an unlikely Vulcan/Klingon hybrid. Thinkng about Taarof as it is practiced, makes me think that an LLM doing this could easily become the most dangerous thing ever.....listening to my father give me specific pointers in how to phrase things and conduct myself is enlightening, he's 97 and enjoying the storys I bring of my life and goings on. If you look further into the history of persian culture , philosophy, and scientific background you will find a number of ancient contributors to what has developed today.