Be careful with hand gestures

When travelling abroad, hand gestures can help make yourself clear when you don’t speak the language. But be careful about your gestures, as locals may find some of them insulting.

Even seasoned business travellers can go wrong with hand gestures, the Telegraph reports in a handy ‘hand gesture guide’. It offers some pretty disturbing examples of how easy it is to go wrong.

If you are in the habit of brushing your hand under your chin, you may be in trouble in France, Northern Italy and Tunisia. In these countries, the gesture is also known as ‘la barbe’, or ‘the beard’. The idea is that the gesturer is flashing his masculinity. “Simply brush the hand under the chin in a forward flicking motion. While not as aggressive as flashing one’s actual genitalia, this gesture is legal and remains effective as a mildly insulting brush-off.”

Here is another one. At a fish market, you may be thinking that you are communicating ‘bad smell’ to someone. Holding your nose with your index and middle finger ‘I find you untrustworthy’ in Southern Italy... ‘The movement suggests that something stinks, and you are trying to rid yourself of the odor.’

Further reading on telegraph.co.uk