The joke goes, “How do you keep an Italian from speaking? You tie up his hands.” While Italians are indeed very expressive with their hands when they speak, most human beings can’t go through a single conversation with peppering it with plenty of hand gestures. People talking on the phone, will use hand gestures to give directions to the voice on the other end of the phone! Hand gesturing is an important part of how we communicate with each other, but we should be careful, as gestures we use in North America can get our butt kicked or even land you in jail in other countries.
Bull Horns
These are used a lot at concert, requesting the band to keep “rocking on.” If there’s an Italian in the audience, he or she is probably wondering why the whole crowd is calling the band a “motherf***er”.
Peace
The peace symbol is fairly recognized around the world. However, giving someone in Australia the peace symbol with the back of your hand facing outward, like the way George W. Bush Jr. did, you’re basically telling them “Up yours mate!” or Go f*** yourself!”
The Summoning Finger
The get over here curled finger might encourage a human being to come towards you, but the same gesture signifies “death” in Singapore. In the Philippines it’s how you would call a dog over. You could get arrested, and they will break your finger to make sure you never do it again.
Thumbs Up
A “thumbs up” in Latin America, West Africa, Greece, Russia, Sardinia and the south of Italy means basically the same thing as the middle finger. In the Middle East the thumbs up is the biggest insult around, and a double thumbs up can get you killed.
The Hand Shovel
In Greece if you turn your open palm upwards and thrust it into someone’s face and say “na!” you’re basically telling someone to eat the imaginary feces from your hand.
The “A-OK” is not Okay
This gesture in used in scuba diving to signify that everything is okay, not to be confused with thumbs up which would mean to start ascending. However, this same gesture signifies “anus” in Brazil and Germany, and would be used to tell someone “you’re an ***hole”.
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