Hey, need some help with homework

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.

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.

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... :wink:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

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?".

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.

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

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http://maze5.net

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

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 :razz:

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

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

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

Doc B... :dodgy:

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".

well gwilliam, youve obviously never been in the military....it is a culture unto itself... :wink:

Doc B... :dodgy:

like the French doing the double kiss as a greeting..

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

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

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.

I thought only little kids do that.

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

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

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http://maze5.net

Live and learn :smile: .

Andrei said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quote:</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>like the French doing the double kiss as a greeting..

Yeah we've got that too. And the russians have something similar.
</div></div>

Doesn't it come from communism (Or lands who have/have had a dictator)? (No offence intended) I mean, it's like something that Saddam, Hitler and Stalin does, you know... There's something patriotic or solidaric (If that's the word?) over it... Not because there's anything of that in it anymore, but it might have continued as a tradition in the countries that have been under dictatorship.

I noticed they do it alot in middle-eastern lands too, though now it's more a family- or good-friend-thing. Just wondering if that's what it comes off.

OR I might be teribbly wrong, and should pull into the shadows again :razz:

<div class="quote"><div class="quotetitle">? quote:</div><div class="quotetext"><div class="quote">
<div class="quotetitle">? quote:</div>

like the French doing the double kiss as a greeting..
</div>

Doesn't it come from communism (Or lands who have/have had a dictator)?

</div></div>

No, not really. The custom is much older than communism and I
really can't think of any French dictators right now. My sympathies to
comrade Mr. Chiraque though . :razz:

Andrei said:
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.

"The Birdie" is a Romanian/Moldovenian thing, not many other people use it.

<div class="quote"><div class="quotetitle">? quote:</div><div class="quotetext">
<div class="quote">"The Birdie"

</div>

</div></div>

also referred to as "the snail eye".

haha, "the snail eye" that's funny.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

I saw this advert in England showing that in Brazil or Indonesia (Can't remember), they find it offensive when you do the ok sign with your hand.

http://www.tnboat.com/course/assets/images/handSignal_ok_200x200.jpg

thqat's close to american sign language for a-hole...

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com