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  • - If you're traveling to a foreign country,

  • don't let the language intimidate you.

  • Words only comprise seven to 35 percent

  • of human communiction.

  • The rest comes via body language,

  • gestures, posture, facial expressions,

  • proximity, and touch.

  • What you should be thinking about

  • are local hand gestures.

  • Many gestures that are innocuous or positive

  • in one country, can be insulting

  • or obscene in another.

  • So before you finish packing your bags,

  • check these out.

  • The middle finger.

  • The most offensive gesture in America

  • is flipping someone off,

  • shooting the bird,

  • giving them the finger.

  • The gesture means screw you, bug off.

  • You can make the sign calmly,

  • or you can angrily extend your arm

  • toward the intended recipient,

  • depending upon how upset you actually are.

  • In the past the gesture was a bit shocking to see.

  • Not so much any more.

  • And as anyone living in America knows,

  • you'll see an impressive, or dismaying,

  • assortment of people using it.

  • From prominent politicians to movie stars.

  • The A-OK.

  • Is everything all right?

  • In America you might respond to such a question

  • by flashing the A-OK sign.

  • This gesture is also widely used in the diving world

  • to both ask if a diver is fine,

  • and for the diver to respond back that she is.

  • Don't make this gesture in Brazil, however,

  • where it's akin to giving someone the finger.

  • In Greece and Turkey it's also seen as quite vulgar

  • and insinuates the person to whom it's given

  • is a homosexual.

  • In some Middle Eastern countries,

  • the A-OK is the symbol for the evil eye.

  • Perhaps the worst misuse

  • of this sign in recent history

  • was committed by then-Vice President

  • Richard Milhous Nixon in the 1950's.

  • The VP emerged from his plane in Brazil,

  • made an A-OK sign with each hand,

  • and enthusiastically wagged them

  • to the assembled crowd.

  • Not surprisingly, the people were astounded

  • and infuriated at this double insult.

  • The fig.

  • It's such a fun game to play

  • with babies and tots.

  • Your thumb, of course, is supposedly

  • the baby's nose.

  • While this game is common in the United States.

  • Australia, and Canada, it's never played in Turkey.

  • In that country, the hand gesture

  • commonly known as the fig

  • is like calling someone an unprintable name.

  • It's also insulting to people in Indonesia,

  • Italy, India, China, and Russia.

  • The gesture hails back to ancient times,

  • when the Romans used it to indicate sexual union.

  • In a positive manner, that is,

  • to wish someone good luck and fertility.

  • It also was seen as a protective measure

  • against the evil eye.

  • The Romans called the gesture mano fico,

  • or fig hand, as they felt the thumb and fist

  • looked like a woman's private parts.

  • Fica is Italian for fig and also slang for vulva.

  • Romans equated figs with female fertility.

  • The gesture is also the same used

  • for the letter T in American Sign Language.

  • Oops.

  • The crossed fingers.

  • When you want to wish someone good luck

  • you'll often tell them, I'll keep my fingers crossed,

  • that they'd get the promotion

  • or pregnant, or win the lottery.

  • If you really want to wish someone good luck

  • you might tell them you'll cross all your fingers

  • and your toes, too.

  • That is, if you live in the United States,

  • Canada, the UK, or Australia.

  • If you happen to be a resident of Viet Nam,

  • however, you'll view crossed fingers

  • as a vulgar symbol for female genitalia.

  • Even worse is if another person

  • crosses his fingers just for or at you.

  • Then it's an especially shocking and horrid offense.

  • The forearm jerk.

  • Think of the European forearm jerk as the

  • big brother of the American middle finger.

  • Southern European males, including those

  • in France, who call it the bras d'honneur,

  • use the forearm jerk as a crude, phallic way

  • to flip someone the bird.

  • It can also indicate sentiments such as

  • I'm better than you are,

  • Get lost, loser,

  • or Up yours buddy.

  • The cutis.

  • Primarily used in India and Pakistan,

  • once you make the gesture

  • you then flick your thumb our of your mouth

  • while crying out, cutta!

  • Which is screw you.

  • This gesture is not only an insult to you

  • buy to your entire family,

  • sort of like saying, you and your family

  • all kind of suck.

  • The thumbs up.

  • As far as traveling gestures go,

  • the thumbs up gets a thumbs down.

  • In the U.S, it means something like Great,

  • I like it, All right, or Ayyyyy.

  • But in other places it's offensive.

  • On the middle east for example,

  • it means Up your butt, fella.

  • Many Latin Americans find it offensive

  • as do citizens of west Africa, Greece, Russia,

  • Sardinia, the south of Italy, Australia,

  • the Philippines, and many Islamic nations.

  • That's a lot of thumbs up haters.

  • Scholars believe it originated in ancient Rome,

  • when crowds used the thumbs up sign to mean

  • a gladiator should be speared

  • or hid their thumbs if he should be spared.

  • If you simply can't stop using this sign,

  • know that you'll be all right in Germany

  • and certain areas of Japan,

  • where the thumbs up sign

  • simply indicates the number one.

  • Those are some of the commonly misunderstood

  • obscene hand gestures, but not all of them.

  • Before you head out on your next

  • international adventure, be sure to learn the rest

  • in our article on HowStuffWorks.com.

  • Also, thanks to Alkaloid Networks for allowing us

  • to desecrate your conference room.

  • You're A-OK.

  • Thumbs up.

  • - The butt.

  • - The butt.

  • (laughter)

  • - What is the word for an adult who doesn't

  • have dinosaur toys in their bedroom?

  • (laughter)

  • What was that?

  • - Monica knows.

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