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I had an experiece that has served as a fount of humor at the workplace. While commuting on the subway one day, a tourist family from the UK was waiting on the subway platform. The father popped his head in the car and asked if this subway was going to Times Square. I told him it was, but that I was getting off before Times Square. I counted off the stops till Times Square and gave him the station count. Since the line was an express, we zipped past several stations without stopping. I could tell the father was confused, unsure if he should count the skipped stops. In the loud subway car, intending to signal that there were still two more stops, I made a hand gesture holding up two fingers. I knew immediately that I had done something terribly wrong. Still, I shouted my message, and made a mental note.
As it turns out, the particular gesture for "two" that I made is extremely vulgar in the UK. I had no idea. Several colleagues from the UK remind me of this incident often.
I am trying to retrain to a safer gesture for "two."
My question is if anyone else has had any experiences with gestures signaling specific meanings, especially ones that are unfamiliar, or limited to specific regions or cultures or professions.
Some years ago my mother was trying to sell her car, and I left her to her own devices while she talked to someone who had answered the ad. After a few minutes, she made a gesture in my direction with the thumb and forefinger of one had forming a circle, with the other fingers extended. Unfortunately, because I was immersed in global cultures at the time, I couldn't tell which meaning she was signalling:
- "okay"
- "sphincter" - what this same gesture means in South America
- "zero"
- "money" - the Japanese interpretation (because old Japanese coins had holes in the middle
The first and last of these four options would have been good news; the others, not so much.
Even official sign language isn't always interpreted correctly, as I once found when I tried to sign "it doesn't matter" to someone I thought knew ASL. I learned later that she thought I was saying something like "get away from me".
I understand that the stock market has many gestures for buying and selling.
In road construction (trying to get the elevation correct):
A single finger meant 1 (inch assumed in context).
Holding the thumb against the second knuckle from the index finger's end meant 1/2.
Holding the thumb against the first knuckle from the index finger's end mean 1/4.
One rub in the finger direction with the two palms together meant 1/8. One-eight inch (actually, 1/100 of a foot) is the precision for road construction.
I have seen the 1/2 sign used in auctions when a bidder wanted to up the bid 1/2 as much as the auctioneer was asking for.
And, there are all the sport fan gestures of which the Texas, hook-em horns or the Redskins, tomahawk chop may be the most (in)famous.
Emmett
Glenn,
I hope your sons figure them out before they come up behind my (or anyone else's) tractor.
BTW, about 38 years ago, my left-turning, 9000 lb tractor (730 John Deere) knocked a 4500 lb Chrysler into the ditch. They did not see my left-turn, hand signal. It bent a $25 wheel rim and misaligned the front end on the tractor and left a little paint on the rear wheel. All the sheet metal on the side of the car was scraped, several thousand dollars of damage.
Emmett
I had a gesture mishap at the lake a few years ago. I have little experience with boats, and am certainly not a skier, but I did try riding in one of those towable inner tubes. It was fun if a little rough, but I managed to hang on. When my friend shouted back, asking if I was okay, I gave a thumbs-up. What followed was several minutes of sheer terror, ending in a back flip and lots of lake water up my nose. It turns out that thumbs-up is the water skiing signal for "more speed!"
LOL, harmonicpies! Sorry for the mishap, but it's a good story. Reminds me of the first time, *I water-skied. The people in the boat had told me "Keep your butt down, and whatever you do, don't let go of the rope." Well, I got up into a half-crouch, my skis went out from under me, and all I could think of was that no matter what, I HAD to hold on to the rope. So even though I was now underwater, I held on to that rope for dear life. Took me longer than it should have to realize that instead of being dragged along under the water, I could actually let GO and float to the surface. Duh.
Oh, and the "OK" sign in Brazil is, I think, the female pudenda. (Was reminded of that p-word while browsing a Latin-English dictionary just now.)
I also once took great offense at an Argentinian indicating "no" to me with a briefly wagging forefinger. I thought it seemed condenscending. Later I realized that all the Argentinians I know signal "no" in that way.
Here is a link for some crane signals. It includes both hand gestures and Morse-code like signals (which I did not know existed).
Since I only water-skied a few years in the sixties, I only remembered moving hand palm up for "speed up" and moving the hand palm down for "slow down". Here is a link that includes both palms and thumbs but here is another
link that only shows thumbs. I wonder if a "kinetic-language" shift has occurred, i.e. was there a time when thumbs were not used at all and is now supplanting palms?
Emmett
Martha - I had a similar water skiing experience as a pre-teen, half drowning myself hanging onto the rope instead of letting go like any rational person. So I thought the inner-tube ride would be less traumatic. Silly me! Now I just paddle around in the water, and leave the water sports to others.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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