RP344 Say It With Your Fingers Carefully

 RP344 Say It With Your Fingers—Carefully

Being in a place where you can't speak the local language can be frustrating. It's only natural in such situations to attempt to communicate through body language. Hand gestures are indeed universal, but their meanings vary as much as speech from place to place.
Take the gesture made by pressing the tips of your thumb and forefinger together while extending your other fingers. In the West, this is instantly recognized as meaning "okay." In Brazil, it is instantly recognized as an insult. In some East Asian countries, it means money. Just imagine the potential misunderstandings!
Trying to call someone over to you can be just as confusing, depending on where you are. Westerners do it with a hooked forefinger and a raised palm. Asians, on the other… uh, hand, find this rude, as they consider it suitable only for calling dogs. To summon another person, they turn the palm down and wave all four fingers pressed together. This is exactly how Western people tell someone to go away!
One hand gesture that does translate is a raised middle finger with the back of the hand facing outward. Considered extremely offensive, this is the American version of a gesture to which the British add a raised forefinger, forming a V. By turning his palm outward, however, the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made this a victory sign during World War II. Twenty-five years later, American hippies used the same gesture to symbolize their wish for peace during the Vietnam War. Nowadays, Vietnamese and other East Asians flash "peace fingers" automatically anytime they have their pictures taken. Confused yet?
Even the simplest hand gestures can cause cross-cultural problems. In the West, a thumb up has a positive meaning and a thumb down a negative one. In the Middle East, a thumb up has a negative meaning and a thumb down has no meaning at all. Might this be part of the reason for the seemingly endless trouble between these two societies?
Body language may be an instinctive option when we can't communicate verbally, but it can also be very hazardous. My advice? The next time you travel abroad, take a phrase book!
East Asians make the "V" gesture when they have their pictures taken.