I don't really remember any experience being in trouble because of any hands gesture that meant something different in America than in Russia or Ukraine. There was a story I heard once. In the begging of 1990's a lot of people from Ukraine went to Eastern European countries to resell some stuff and thus make some money for living. So one man just got to Bulgaria, where he had to change a train or was returning back, but he was not familiar that "Yes" means "No" and vice-versa. That guy was late for train, and while running and looking for his train he asked someone if the one he just ran by was going to where he needed, so person nodded his head up and down. That guy just jumped in the train and already was accelerating. Only late in conversation he found out that he was going in the opposite direction. Later he made a discovery for himself, in Bulgaria shaking you head left to right means "YES", while nodding your head us and down means "NO"
Here is a video I found interesting and informative on our subject.
However, there are couple things that I am not agree with. First, in Russia thumb-up doesn't have any offensive meaning, as long as "ok" sign. I've spent more than 5 years living in Russia and never had a problem with "ok" sign. It is possible that for last couple years something has changed, but really doubt that changes could be so significant.
A lot of other students have experienced wrong gestures with people from other countries, which you would think the people would adapt to the culture here. I was laughing when I was reading the part about the guy asking for advice from someone and the gestures meant something completely different as opposed to the ones in the United States. It is weird how they can have the same gestures just backwards, I wonder how that even happened. I am not saying we are right here in the United States. It is also funny how people have created representations of their favorite team or object with offensive gestures found in other countries. I may have to tone down my body language when speaking with people now.
ReplyDelete