OK or not???

            When a person asks you something similar to the question above, and you are just too busy to reply him/her, you would show hand gestures such as thumbs up, or the okay sign.

            However, these simple hand gestures to substitute words or also known as emblems are somehow quite misleading.  It might have some other meanings in different cultures.

            So normally whenever you make a circle with your thumb and your index finger, it means okay, great, fine and etc.  But in other cultures such as Brazil and Germany, the said gesture meant ‘Anus’, therefore meaning homosexual.  You might get beaten up if you showed this okay sign to the wrong person.

            There was once I was showed to a video of a stand-up comedy by Russell Peters.  The Canadian-born Indian once talked about Italians and their hand gestures.  The most outstanding and also the only one that Russell emphasized on were: with palms facing upwards, all fingertips touching each other.

            According to Russell the simple hand gesture to Italians simply meant ‘what the f***’.  He later said that the same gesture to Indians meant ‘Eat’! Even in Malaysia we sometimes use this hand gesture too, mostly used as an emblem or illustrator.  

            So now I guess those of you who read this will definitely be more careful when using emblems. 

            Moral of the story is: Don’t show any hand gestures! Just speak it out loud!!


Amelyn