{"id":4517,"date":"2019-06-09T16:58:54","date_gmt":"2019-06-09T16:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4517"},"modified":"2026-08-25T19:43:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:43:52","slug":"the-top-10-hand-gestures-youd-better-get-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.languagetrainers.co.uk\/blog\/the-top-10-hand-gestures-youd-better-get-right\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top 10 Hand Gestures You’d Better Get Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anybody remember when George H. W. Bush tried to signal “peace” during a visit to Australia in the 90s by giving a large crowd the time-honoured two-fingered salute? Though he didn’t know it at the time, the meaning of hand signs varies across countries. So, he was actually telling the whole crowd to go screw themselves – and all because he made the seemingly innocuous error that his palm was facing inwards instead of outwards.<\/p>\n

This is a danger all of us can suffer when travelling abroad, as some hand gestures have very different meanings in some countries from what we as Westerners believe them to stand for. Let’s take a look, shall we?<\/p>\n

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1. The “Wanker”<\/h2>\n

This one actually has a universal meaning. It was just too good not to include in any compilation of hand gestures. There aren\u2019t many places on earth where you could get away with frantically fist-pumping at somebody – I’d imagine because masturbating’s the same wherever you go. Even in Japan.<\/p>\n

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“The Wanker” by Gui Seiz<\/a> via Wikimedia<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Interestingly, in\u00a0Greece\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Portugal<\/strong>, the gesture is made with the palm\u00a0facing the ground<\/em>, implying that the person is rather fonder of wanking other men as opposed to himself.\u00a0Tony Blair was caught doing this gesture during his adolescence<\/a>, which caused quite a stir when people found out!<\/p>\n

2. The “Thumbs-Up”<\/h2>\n

First of all, let\u2019s quash the urban legend of the “thumbs-up\/thumbs-down”\u00a0being used by the audience in the Roman coliseum to vote on the life or death of a defeated gladiator, as furthered by such movies as\u00a0Gladiator<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Spartacus<\/em>. There’s no evidence for this, and it’s just massively unlikely. Sorry.
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