Multiple Hand Gestures Interpretation across Culture

Natasha Ang

Martina Videla Black

Ivan Singgit

Kathy Yuan

Multiple Hand Gestures Interpretation across Culture

Similar to greetings and salutations, one other important component of a culture is hand gesture. Hand gesture is the movement made by our hands that displays some form of nonverbal communication as we generate messages through the expression and movement of our hands without using any verbal context. What a lot of people don’t know about hand gestures is that it doesn’t necessarily have the same meaning in every culture. One famous example is when former President of America, Richard Nixon went to Australia for political reasons. Once he stepped outside his plane, he made a v-sign gesture towards every cameras and reporters surrounding him. However, he didn’t realize that he just actually insulted the whole Australia because of one single hand gesture. Therefore, let’s examine some famous hand gestures that symbolize a lot of different meanings in different cultures.

The Thumbs Up 

Origins of Thumbs Up had been debated for a long time; some said that it has been used since the Roman Empire era where Thumbs Up means Gladiator who loses a battle will be spared their life and vice versa. In the modern era, the Thumbs Up hand gesture in most cases signify sign of approval or “good job” and it’s very much associated with positive messages, whereas Thumbs Down usually means disapproval. However in some Middle-Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, thumbs up are probably the worst possible type of gestures you can give to the local people. It’s pretty much the equivalence of middle finger gesture in Western countries. This interpretation of thumbs up also can be found in West African countries, Latin American countries and also parts of Mediterranean Europe such as Italy and Greece.






The OK Sign 

In U.S and Canada, the OK or A-OK sign is another very common hand gesture used to notify agreement or just the expression of feeling content with something. This Ok-sign is also popular amongst scuba divers to signify that they’re alright. However, the same gesture has various different interpretations from different part of the world. For example in France, The Ok gesture is interpreted as zero, so French people might get offended when someone showed them that gesture because they think the person doing the gesture are calling them worthless like the number zero. In Turkey, some Latin American countries and some part of Germany, the OK-sign is considered to be fairly offensive. The sign is usually related to homosexuality or basically calling the person an anus. In Asia, the sign signifies money in Japan and the number 3 in China.

The V-Sign

Another very common gesture in the Western world is the V-sign or also usually called as the peace sign or number 2 sign. In most Western countries, there are 2 types of V-signs. One of them is when you make the sign with your palm facing towards your audiences; this v-sign usually symbolizes things such as peace, love and victory. Another type is when you make the sign with your palm facing towards yourselves; this was taken as a gesture of insult by a lot of Western countries particularly United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, etc.

The V-sign is much more ambiguous in the Eastern culture. In most East Asian countries such as Japan, China, Thailand, etc, the gesture is usually interpreted as a symbol of victory. There are also no differences between outward or inward V-Sign in Asia. In Vietnam, this gesture actually can be used as a gesture to say “Hello.” In Argentina, the sign is usually associated with the political movement Peronismo. The V-sign are also not just different by countries, even some sub-cultures has different interpretation of V-sign. One of them is the famous “Fight On” pose which is very associated with students of USC.

As you can see, there are multiple interpretations of the same gesture across countries and cultures. Even, sub-cultures within a culture might also have another interpretation that’s not mainstream but it applies in their culture. Therefore, it’s very important to be able to understand what these little things mean in other cultures because it could potentially make or break your relationship with these cultures by doing a tiny hand gesture.