Gestures and body anguage communcate as ehectvey as words- maybe

even more ehectvey. We use gestures day, amost nstnctvey, from beckonng to
a water, or punctuatng a busness presentaton wth vsua sgnas to arport
ground attendants gudng an arne pot nto the |etway or a parent usng a whoe
dctonary of gestures to teach (or preach to) a chd.
There are dherent body anguages or gestures used to convey somethng.
1. SUPERIORITY - The rst pcture beow shows the superorty poston; the
person takes ths posture when he fees superor or overcondent. That's why
ts caed the state of over condence or superorty. For exampe, when
someone nshes a hard task or competes an exam qucky you may nd hm
takng the superorty posture. The second pcture was frequenty used n
superor-subordnate nteracton and that t ndcates a condent or sef-
assured atttude. Superors often use ths gesture poston when they gve
nstructons or advce to subordnates and t s partcuary common among
accountants, awyers and managers.
2. OPENNESS - When peope wsh to be totay open or honest they w hod
one or both pams out to the other person and say somethng ke, Let me be
competey open wth you. When someone begns to open up or be truthfu,
he w expose a or part of hs pams to another person. Lke most body
anguage, ths s a competey unconscous gesture, one that gves you a
feeng or hunch that the other person s teng the truth.
3. CONFIDENCE - stands uprght and nger tps touch each other. A person w
make these gestures when he fees condent about the topc he s takng
about or when he beeves he knows much about the topc he s stenng to.
4. COOPERATION - handshake
5. READINESS - Standng wth hands on hps
6. INDIFFERENCE - movng shouders up and down
7. BOREDOM - Hand supported your face on the desk as you straned to keep
your eyeds open. When a person begns to use hs hand to support hs head,
t s a sgna that boredom has set n and hs supportng hand s an attempt to
hod hs head up to stop hmsef from fang aseep.
8. SUSPICION - Neck strokng
9. SECRETIVENESS a nger near the mouth
10.DOUBT - See no ev says the wse monkey, and ths gesture s the brans
attempt to bock out the decet, doubt or e that t sees or to avod havng to
ook at the face of the person to whom he s teng the e. Men usuay rub
ther eyes vgorousy and f the e s a bg one they w often ook away,
normay towards the oor.
11.ANXIETY - It can transate very drecty nto an unconscous eg-shakng (or
foot-tappng,). Shakng your egs whe sttng sends a gant message to
everyone around you about your nner feengs of anxety or rrtaton or
both.
12.FRUSTRATION - The hand-grppng-wrst gesture s a sgna of frustraton. In
ths case one hand grps the other wrst or arm very tghty.
13.ANGER - Further the hand s moved up the back, the angrer the person has
become.
14.SELF-CONTROL - If a sef-contro gesture s changed to the pam-n-pam
poston, a camng and condent feeng resuts. The man n Fgure 46, for
exampe, s showng a greater attempt at sef-contro than the man n Fgure
45 because the hand n Fgure 46 s grppng the upper arm, not |ust the
wrst. It s ths type of gesture that has gven rse to such expressons as, Get
a good grp on yoursef.
15.INNER-CONFLICT - Arms behnd the back s resorted by those who s
experencng an nner conct.
Accordng to Davd Matsumoto & Hysung C. Hwang, they have observed
three types of cutura dherences n embems. One was a dherence n the form of
an embem across cutures n reaton to the same verba message. Insuts, for
nstance, occurred n a regons and key serve the same functon, conveyng
ohensve or aggressve messages to another. They orgnate from atttudes reated
to sex or excrement, whch themseves are topcs of unversa concern; the specc
forms of these gestures, however, dhered across regons. Gestures reated to the
verba message come occurred n a regons; yet the regons had dherent forms
of the gesture for ths verba message. Another type of dherence was a dherence
n meanng to the same forms. The rng, for nstance, n whch a crce s made
wth the thumb and ndex nger and the other three ngers are open, can mean A-
OK, money, or a varety of other messages. Brngng both hands together n the
front and bowng had mutpe meanngs across cutures (thank you, heo,
goodbye), as dd brngng both hands to the sdes of ones head and pontng the
ndex nger (the dev, angry, horny). A thrd type of dherence nvoved
cuturay unque embems. The message for apoogy, for nstance, occurred ony
n South Asa; the message for hunger occurred ony n East Asa; and the
message for day after tomorrow occurred ony n the Mdde East, despte the fact
that these are ceary unversa concerns.
A cutures wak on the same sde of the pavement as they drve on the road.
Ths means f you're Brtsh, Austraan, South Afrcan or a New Zeaander, you drve
and wak to the eft. In Itay for exampe the consequence s that you'd nd the
Itaans constanty bumpng nto you as you wak on the pavement because, as they
approach and you step to your eft, they step to ther rght. Wearng sungasses n
foregn countres s the snge bggest cause of pavement cosons between
cutures because no one can see the other person's gaze to know whch way they
ntend to step. But t's a nove way of meetng new and nterestng foregners.
As you tak wth oca Itaans, they seem to stand n your space, contnuay
grabbng you, takng over the top of you, yeng n fact, and soundng angry about
everythng. But these thngs are a norma part of everyday frendy Itaan
communcaton. Not a thngs n a cutures mean the same thngs.
A.
Europe and North America: OK
Mediterranean region, Russia, Brazil, Turkey: An orce sgna; sexua
nsut; gay man
Tunisia, France, Belgium: Zero; worthess
Japan: Money; cons
B.
estern countries: One; Excuse me!; As God s my wtness; No! (to
chdren)
C.
Britain, Australia, Ne! "ealand, Malta: Up yours!
#$A: Two
%ermany: Vctory
France: Peace
Ancient Rome: |uus Caesar orderng ve beers
D.
Europe: Three
&atholic countries: A bessng
E.
Europe: Two
Britain, Australia, Ne! "ealand: One
#$A: Water!
Japan: An nsut
F.
estern countries: Four
Japan: An nsut
G.
estern countries: Number 5
E'ery!here: Stop!
%reece and Turkey: Go to he!
H.
Mediterranean: Sma pens
Bali: Bad
Japan: Woman
$outh America: Thn
France: You can't foo me!
I.
Mediterranean: Your wfe s beng unfathfu
Malta and (taly: Protecton aganst the Ev Eye (when ponted)
$outh America: Protecton aganst bad uck (when rotated)
#$A: Texas Unversty Logo, Texas Longhorn Footba Team
J.
%reece: Go to He!
The est: Two
K.
Ancient Rome: Up yours!
#$A: St on ths! Screw you!
L.
Europe: One
Australia: St on ths! (upward |erk)
idespread: Htchhke; Good; OK
%reece: Up yours! (thrust forward)
Japan: Man; ve
M.
)a!aii: 'Hang oose'
)olland: Do you want a drnk?
N. #$A: I ove you
O.
The est: Ten; I surrender
%reece: Up Yours -- twce!
idespread: I'm teng the truth
The Three Mo! Co""o# Cro-C$%!$r&% Ge!$re
There are dherent cutura nterpretatons and mpcatons of three common hand
gestures, the Ring, the Thum*+#p and the ,+sign.
'. The R(#)
Ths gesture was popuarzed n the USA durng the eary nneteenth century
by the newspapers that were startng a craze or usng ntas to shorten common
phrases. There are many dherent vews about what the ntas 'OK' orgnay stood
for, some beevng t stood for 'a correct' whch was reguary msspeed as 'o
korrect', whe others say that t means the opposte of 'knock-out' that s, KO.
'OK' to a Westerner, 'money' to a |apanese, 'zero' to the French and nsutng to the
Turks and Brazans
Another popuar theory s that t s an abbrevaton of 'Od Knderhook', from
the brthpace of a nneteenth-century Amercan presdent who used the ntas as a
campagn sogan. It's obvous that the rng tsef represents the etter 'O' n the 'OK'
sgna. The 'OK' meanng s common to a Engsh-speakng countres and ts
meanng s fast spreadng everywhere due to Amercan TV and moves, but t has
other orgns and meanngs n certan paces. In France and Begum t aso means
'zero' or 'nothng'. In a Pars restaurant one evenng, the water showed us to our
tabe and asked, 'Is the tabe OK?' We ashed hm the OK sgna and he responded,
'We, f you do not ke t here we' nd you another tabe...' He had nterpreted the
OK sgna as meanng 'zero' or 'worthess' - n other words, he thought we had
communcated that we dd not ke the tabe.
Use the 'OK' gesture to tell a French person their cooking is wonderful
and they'll probably throw you out.
In |apan t can mean 'money'; f you're dong busness n |apan and you make
ths sgn for 'OK' a |apanese may thnk you're askng them for a brbe. In some
Medterranean countres t's an orce sgna, often used to nfer that a man s
homosexua. Show a Greek man the OK sgna and he may thnkyou're nferrng you
or he s gay, whe a Turk mght thnkyou're cang hm an 'arsehoe'. It's rare n Arab
countres where t s used as ether a threat sgna or as an obscenty.
In the 1950s, before he became Presdent, Rchard Nxon vsted Latn
Amerca on a goodw tour to try to patch up straned reatons wth the ocas. As
he stepped out of hs pane he showed the watng crowds the Amercan 'OK' sgna
and was stunned as they began boong and hssng at hm Beng unaware of oca
body anguage customs, Nxon's OK sgna had been read as 'You're a a bunch of
arsehoes.'
If you trave nternatonay, the safest rue s to aways ask the ocas to show
you ther nsut sgnas to avod any possbe embarrassng crcumstances.
*. The Th$"+-U,
In paces that have strong Brtsh nuence, such as the US, Austraa, South
Afrca, Sngapore and New Zeaand, the Thumb-Up gesture has three meanngs: t's
commony used by htch-hkers who are thumbng a ft; t s an OK sgna; and when
the thumb s |erked sharpy upwards t becomes an nsut, meanng 'up yours' or 'st
on ths'. In some countres, such as Greece, the thumb s thrust forward and ts man
meanng s 'get stuhed'!
Never hitch-hike in Greece.
As demonstrated, when Europeans count from one to ve, they use the
Thumb-Up to mean 'one', the ndex nger becomes 'two', whereas most Engsh-
speakng peope count 'one' on the ndex nger and 'two' on the mdde nger. In
ths case the Thumb-Up w represent the number 've'.
Ths can mean 'Good', 'One', 'Up yours' or 'St on ths' dependng where you ve.
Beng the most powerfu dgt on the hand t s used as a sgn of power and
can be seen protrudng from pockets, wastcoats and on apes. The thumb s aso
used, n combnaton wth other gestures, as a power and superorty sgna or n
stuatons where peope try to get us 'under ther thumb'. The thumb s referred to
n ths expresson because of ts physca power.
-. The V-S()#
Ths sgn s common n Great Brtan, Austraa, and New Zeaand and carres
an 'up yours' nterpretaton. Wnston Church popuarzed the 'V for vctory' sgn
durng the Second Word War, but hs two-ngered verson was done wth the pam
facng out, whereas the pam faces towards the speaker for the obscene nsut
verson.
Ths can mean 'two' to an Amercan, 'Vctory' to a German and 'Up yours' n Brtan
Its orgn can be traced back centures to the Engsh archers who used
these two ngers to re ther arrows. It was consdered the utmate degradaton for
a sked archer to be captured and, rather than be executed, have hs two shootng
ngers removed. The two-ngered V sgn qucky became used as a goadng sgna
n batte by the Brtsh to show ther enemes 'I've st got my shootng ngers.'
In parts of Europe, however, the pam-facng-n verson st means 'vctory'
so an Engshman who uses t to te a German 'up yours' coud eave the German
thnkng he'd won a prze. Ths sgna now aso means the number two n some parts
of Europe, and f the nsuted European was a bartender, hs response coud be to
gve an Engshman, Amercan or Austraan two mugs of beer.