Culture —– Hand Gestures (gestos)
I am going to cover a certain Latin hand gesture that is essential to know. Some of you may be disappointed who wanted to learn how to do a gesture involving a particular “middle” finger to show anger. Sorry—remember, this is a family-friendly website. (By the way, that finger sign means nothing to native Spanish speakers unless they have lived in the United States.) My goal is to help you learn Spanish and teach you about the Latin American culture as I know it.
This gesture is one that, if done incorrectly, can cause a lot of trouble. In the United States, and probably other English speaking countries (feedback requested please), if you want to say “come here” using hand gestures, you put out your hand, palm facing up, and move your index finger in and out two or three times.
Using the same gesture to a Latin person from certain areas of Latin America, it can have a completely different meaning. It means that you are extremely romantically interested and it is acknowledged as a solicitation. You can imagine the problems you could get into if you didn’t know the Latin meaning of this typical American hand gesture.
The proper way to say “come here” in Spanish, using a hand gesture, is to put your palm face down and move all four fingers in and out (together) two or three times. So, the “palm up-one finger-American gesture” is completely different than the “palm down-four finger-Latin American gesture”. Now that you know the difference, remember to avoid confusing the two (unless you’re looking for trouble)!
To illustrate the problems you can get into if you make the wrong gesture, I’d like to share the following short story:
As I was teaching Spanish at a major US corporation, the managers I was teaching shared the following experience: There was a Latin woman at their corporation who didn’t speak very much English. This woman had accused a man at the corporation of sexual harassment. A corporate hearing was held to assess the situation which involved the managers, the woman, the accused man, and an interpreter.
As the woman was asked to explain the charge, there was a very serious mood in the room. After a few moments of explanation, the interpreter began to laugh uncontrollably. The managers thought this was extremely inappropriate and asked him to explain why he was laughing.
The interpreterexplained what the woman had told him. He said that the accused man needed the woman to come with him for a job-related activity. He had gestured for her to come, as most Americans do, with the palm up and moving the index finger in and out. She then told the interpreter that the accused man had made several unwanted solicitations. When the woman had told this to the interpreter, he realized that this was a big cultural misunderstanding and he began to laugh. Both cultural gestures were then explained to all parties and the situation resolved.
The moral of the story: If you want to signal for someone to “come here” in Latin America, put your palm down instead of up, and use four fingers instead of one, or you may find yourself with muchos problemas!
If you have visited different parts of the world and have seen some interesting hand gestures (clean ones please), please share your thoughts!
Sneak peek at next week: More hand gestures – The Thief Sign
¡Que tengan una buena semana! (Have a great week!)
David S. Clark — President / Director
Click here to learn Spanish.
HI, I have a question regarding a completely different topic. I purchased both the Complete course and Verbal II module. I cant get the Module to open on my Imax. It loads but wont open Help!
Also I would like to know if there will be further more advanced lessons available. I also visit Cuba often and find that the Spanish is different than what is taught (somewhat) I enjoy Spanish very much and hope to,spend next winter in Mexico, As a side note I am a great grandmother and find most native speakers go out of their way to assist me.
Saludos!