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Hey, need some help with homework
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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Spartan on Sat Feb 25th at 7:19pm 2006

I'm taking an online course in life management. I'm working on a peice of homework right now where I need to conduct research on people from other cultures. The question I'm being asked is... types of hand guestures and their meanings in different cultures and countries.




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Andrei on Sat Feb 25th at 7:30pm 2006

How about placing your thumb between the pointing finger and the middle one while keeping the fist closed? It's a less-known alternative for the raised middle-thinger sign.

[edit]

Just remembered. When a japanese man raises his pinky, he means "girlfriend" and i've noticed that drivers around here raise their right hands and rotate their fists in the air ,from the wrist, as to warn other drivers that there's a police radar in the area.




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Captain P on Sat Feb 25th at 9:58pm 2006

Sounds like quite a broad question... what hand gestures are you being asked for specifically?

I mean, here we put our hand up and wave when we say good-bye, or just put it up to greet somebody, but I think that's fairly common, not specifically Dutch or something...
Or keeping our hand horizontal with our arm vertical, and waving the hand around, while making a whistle sound, in cases when something went was seemingly going wrong but just went right...
Oh, and sometimes we point at our head and rotate the finger around the ear, as if someones crazy. Pointing at your forehead and tipping it with the finger means the same.
And while praying, we put both hands into each other (so that the fingers grip into each other).

I don't know in how far these gestures are Dutch, or appear in more countries, but hey, you asked for something... <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif">


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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Andrei on Sat Feb 25th at 10:07pm 2006

We have each and every gesture you mentioned aswell so I guess it's safe to assume that most of the world (well, Europe and the US, at least) have them.

The thumbs-up and the thumbs-down has an interesting history since it dates from roman times and was used to decide whether a gladiator was worthy of living or not. Also used for voting in the senate, I think.

Oh, and tapping the veins on your left arm (usually at the joint) with your right hand's pointing finger and middle finger is a sarcastic reference to drugs, and also means something like "are you high?".




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by fraggard on Sun Feb 26th at 2:57am 2006

A gesture somewhat specific to my hometown is to make a fist with one hand, and then extend the thumb and little finger away from the fist in opposite directions. Then rotate the fist clockwise and counter clockwise alternatively. The gesture means that the person you're showing it to is lying/bluffing/talking rot/has no clue what he's saying.




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by mazemaster on Sun Feb 26th at 7:53am 2006

Contrary to popular belief, in Roman times thumbs up meant "kill him", and thumbs down meant "let him live".


http://maze5.net



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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Andrei on Sun Feb 26th at 10:17am 2006

Are you sure? Because I can relate the thumbs-down to the image of someone lying down, dead.




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Gwil on Sun Feb 26th at 12:16pm 2006

An obvious choice, how about the black communitys greeting of fists together / something along those lines.

Now aped by white teenagers in skewed caps and baggy sportswear :P




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Andrei on Sun Feb 26th at 1:22pm 2006

Just curious. Do you guys tap your left cheek with your pointing finger when you mean "shame on you"?




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Gwil on Sun Feb 26th at 1:30pm 2006

Two fingers up is "f**k off" - the urban legend is that it derives from English longbowmen taunting the French at Agincourt - bowmen who were captured usually had their two fingers removed.

A middle finger up is "up yours", which is more or less "f**k off" but is more a gesture of defiance or gloat.

And no, Andrei, I can't say I've ever heard of this finger on the left cheek business.

edit - This seems to cover it pretty nicely: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_finger




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Dr Brasso on Sun Feb 26th at 2:24pm 2006

theres tonnes of hand signals used by the military in the us....are those applicable?

Doc B...:dodgy:





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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Gwil on Sun Feb 26th at 2:53pm 2006

You'd be there for hours Doc - the hand signals used by armies all over the world are pretty much standard, people deviate and change, but you can't really classify them as a cultural distinction.

Hand signals in the military are for covert and quick communication, I think Spartan wants things distinct to countries or groups of people - like the French doing the double kiss as a greeting..

As far as I can see too, Spartan - you should be trying to find out where say, two fingers in the UK means "f**k off", in Transyllvania it means "my pet bear has escaped and is on a rampage for low grade maize snacks".






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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Dr Brasso-Kona- on Sun Feb 26th at 4:18pm 2006

well gwilliam, youve obviously never been in the military....it is a culture unto itself... <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_wink.gif">

Doc B...:dodgy:





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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Andrei on Sun Feb 26th at 4:54pm 2006

? quote:
like the French doing the double kiss as a greeting..



Yeah we've got that too. And the russians have something similar.




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Spartan on Sun Feb 26th at 6:04pm 2006

Hey thanks for the input guys. This is definetly what I was looking for.




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Sun Feb 26th at 8:31pm 2006

When Andrei mentioned "shame on you" I thought of pointing my left index finger at a person while rubbing my right index finger along the top, from the knuckle towards the tip. Almost like you're peeling a potato.




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Andrei on Sun Feb 26th at 8:37pm 2006

I thought only little kids do that.




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Sun Feb 26th at 8:39pm 2006

I do it as a joke now and again. I wonder what its origin is?




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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by mazemaster on Mon Feb 27th at 4:51am 2006

? quote:
Are you sure? Because I can relate the thumbs-down to the image of someone lying down, dead.


http://www.wordquest.info/thumbs-up.html
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/games/a/thumbsup.htm
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:EdLiufsq-ucJ:www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/goofs+thumbs+up+thumbs+down+gladiator&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumbs-down#Thumbs_up.2C_thumbs_down


http://maze5.net



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 Re: Hey, need some help with homework
Posted by Andrei on Mon Feb 27th at 11:45am 2006

Live and learn <img src=" SRC="images/smiles/icon_smile.gif"> .





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