Why YSK: No sense in making the locals mad unless you mean to. In some Middle Eastern countries, a thumbs-up is comparable to the middle finger. A peace sign in the UK is OK if your palm is facing away from you; otherwise, it’s an insult. Pointing with your index finger is offensive in Malaysia. An OK symbol is not OK in Brazil, it’s that smelly hole you normally sit upon.
Reader’s Digest did an entire article on these gestures: https://www.rd.com/article/common-hand-gestures-rude-in-other-countries/
I wonder if head gestures are somewhat universal. Is shaking your head up and down always a yes?
According to Stack Exchange, nods are yes and shakes are no in English Speaking countries. In Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Macedonia a single nod means no according to a Reddit post. The same post indicates that in India and other South-East Asian countries the conventions of nodding for ‘yes’ and shaking your head for ‘no’ is inverted to mean the opposite. The Indian version is more of a side-to-side bob or wobble than a shake. I guess it’s best to learn yes and no when traveling abroad and use the words when possible.
This is wrong. A single nod in Greece, as well as multiple nods mean yes. Shaking means no, as well “noding backwards” if we can call it that way. Source, I am Greek.
Fascinating. I am so used to giving the single head nod as an acknowledgedment to people I might have to avoid it if I’m aboard
pointing with your finger in any country is rude. just use a discreet open palm if you wish to gesture someone’s attention somewhere. what happened to common courtesy?? so many people just dont know their a,b,cs of politeness. what a shitshow.
What does that have to do with what I said?
Your comment inadvertently checks out
When I first started working with Indian contractors in the late '90s, as I was explaining something of one of the systems to him he would tilt his head to the left and the right, almost as a sideways bobble.
We were both looking at a screen He kept bobbling more and more vigorously. I had to stop him and ask what exactly the side to side motion meant.
He said oh yes uhh I understand. Like you understand what I’m saying and that’s what that motion means or you just telling me that you understand? Is actually a bobble left and right to mean okay.
The head wobble doesn’t have one simple meaning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gbrB8KwES4
I worked for many years with someone from south India and he would do the head wobble so over the years he tried to explain it. I still don’t fully understand it. Haha
I’ve been watching Bollywood movies since I was a kid and I still can’t replicate the sideway head wobble. It’s surprisingly difficult!
Today I learned that Reader’s Digest is still an ongoing entity.
In Japan the gesture for “come here” looks like the gesture for “go away” everywhere else.
A shaken open hand in Vietnam means it’s all gone - empty. Like I rattled the can and it’s definitely finished. But an American would think it’s a basketball or globe spin thing going on.
If someone picks their nose slightly and flicks it it’s just means get lost. It’s not a drama to them because running noses and boogers aren’t as common in a tropical country. They don’t get plague vibes from everything booger related. Usually it just means your joke sucks.
An intro nodding forward is saying hello with respect, almost like a fist bump with Americans. Folding your arms for older people and slightly bowed nod is double or triple respect. But with most people just return the slight respect.
Use two hands to pass business cards and bow a little or else you’re not really considering them as business clients of any renown. This is the same in all of Eastern Asia AFAIK.
Take your shoes off! Huge mistake in some houses.
Don’t stick your tongue out or use middle finger. It’s viewed as much worse than foreigners expect it to mean to locals. Like you’re defaming them or something.
Don’t pat people on the head in South East Asia unless you know it’s okay with everyone including bystanders. The temple of the body or something to some people.
Some people don’t like seeing kissing in public.
Girls with midriffs/exposed bellies used to piss old men off. Don’t know if that’s still a thing.
You are not wrong, but you are no right either. Here the OK hand gesture is just that, the OK hand gesture, there’s a similar gesture meant to be insulting, but it’s largely context dependent.
