Rock On! More Gestures to Watch in Video Conferences or Travels
Communicating Across The Globe: Part 3
Each area of the world has its own ideas about what hands should or shouldn’t do. It pays to know what other people’s hands are signaling, and know what not to signal with yours. So for the third and final piece in this gestures series, I’m going to cover a few more random examples of gestures that vary across the globe.
Say, for example, a man in Greece ends your guidebook conversation by shoving his hand toward you, palm open and fingers outstretched. You’ve just been told off. This gesture, called the moutza, is a traditional Greek insult that means something like “talk to the hand, because the face isn’t listening” — or “get lost.” This signal and its cousins are also insulting in Pakistan, parts of Africa, and Japan.
Another example: When you take a prospective customer to dinner in a Muslim country, you need to be aware of proper eating habits. Eat with your right hand only since the left hand is reserved for other bodily functions.
Curling one finger toward you is a simple beckoning gesture in America and much of the West. But in the Philippines, this gesture is so unacceptable that using it toward another person may get you arrested.
And you
’d better remember where you are if you hold up your hand with the index and little fingers standing up straight like a pair of horns. In countries like Spain, Portugal, Greece, Colombia, and Albania, this one still delivers the traditional insult “your wife is cheating on you.” It won't go over well in Oklahoma Sooner country where this one represents the University of Texas Hook 'em Horns. Elsewhere it’s used by fans of rock and heavy metal music to suggest evil. But, surprisingly, this same gesture is used to ward off evil in Buddhist and Hindu cultures.
If you are traveling and presenting internationally, or participating in video conferences with international audiences, it pays to do your homework and know your audience. Of course, you can always practice during audio conferences or Web conferences as a way to hone your skills!
More on shoes (don’t throw them), legs (don’t cross them) and noses (don’t blow them) and what you should know when you travel in certain parts of the world. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article5348373.ece