A Cool Guide to American Hand Gestures That Can Get You in Trouble Abroad
A Cool Guide to American Hand Gestures That Can Get You in Trouble Abroad
This seems pretty overblown to me. Basically any hand gesture is an obscene insult in Greece? Maybe someone native wants to offer some perspective?
Yeah don't worry, this is pretty bs. The only one that's kinda accurate is number 4 but with outstretched fingers, not stuck together. And even that is slowly being fazed out in favor of the middle finger.
Hand gestures can absolutely be offensive.
I'm Australian and I have never heard of the peace sign meaning up yours
I doubt the accuracy of the information in this
I think they’re getting confused with a similar sign. If you do the peace sign sweeping the fingers upward but with the back of your hand facing the person then that means up yours. Or at least it did when I was younger.
peace sign is forward, up yours is backward. definitely slipped out of australian use in the last few decades at least, but people who were around for the pound might remember.
If someone signaled to me the backwards V, all I would think is "do they think I'm British?"
Kiwi here, same.
I'd find it weird someone is using the term groovy in this day and age, but that's it.
The V-sign, isn't the clue to make it with the palm facing away from you? The V-for victory sign is definitely a thing in Great Britain. Churchill somewhat famously did the sign incorrectly the first few times he used it.
IIRC in Straw Dogs, Dustin Hoffman plays an American who has come to rural England. He's greeted by two locals who give him the peace sign, then when he walks away they turn their hands around and it becomes the two-fingered salute.
So Greece has a problem. Well 👍
Yeah if everything is offensive in one specific place it's suspicious
Brit here, the V sign has two different meanings dependant on which side of the fingers is shown. If the palm side is shown then it's the same peace sign, if it's the other side then it's offensive.
I've been told it harkens back to Agincourt, where captured English archers had their drawing fingers cut off, so showing them would mean you're out to shoot some French.
Funny thing about these is when your country is involved you realize how full of shit the rest must be then.
As a French person born and raised, who lives right next to the Belgian border, never seen 3 used in the way they pretend it is.
It just means 'ok'
Same in Belgium, never seen anyone use it for that
Tineye tracks this image back to 2017 and Pimsleur is old school in every way (including factoids) so the info behind it could easily be a last minute drunken assignment from 50 years ago.
We're a lot more globalized and everyone has been exposed to the America "character" through mass media since then. My advice to American tourists is to stop comparing everything to "back home" and to realise you are constantly breaking taboos but your hosts are too polite to tell you. And to remember this when the similarily offend you.
Anyone from the Phillipines wanna verify that? Getting arrested for a hand gesture seems pretty wild.
I am a turkish person and no the "ok" sign doesn't mean something like that
From Belgium, never heard of what they're stating there either
👌🏻
Gotta agree with the Filipinos on number 6 its like calling a dog to heel and its intentionally demeaning.
Tbh I just assumed it was what Americans were constantly doing to Filipinos when they were an American colony.
LMAO were the fuck someone gonna be mad at "ok" in brasil
I'm pretty sure a middle finger could get you in trouble abroad
Also, don't make the crip sign in criplandia
The idea that I can't throw up devil horns at a Wig Wam concert just doesn't compute to me.
Out of curiosity, in which parts of Australia is the V sign insulting? I'd only recognise it as an insult because I grew up watching British sitcoms, I've never seen it used that way in person.
#3 is also a dog whistle for white supremacy...WP too...boo racists.
Edit: why's mine big?
Starting a line with one or more hash symbols translates to a header format in certain apps.
Put a backslash \ infront of the #
"Haha they think this a white supremacist symbol now, I'm such a troll, dumb libs!"- White supremacists, using it as a symbol.