Hand Gestures Can Get You Into Trouble
When asked about using hand gestures, it turns out that more British holiday-goers (60%) admitted to using hand-gestures to aid communication, in comparison to the French (46%) and Italians (48%) - however this is not a good thing! Something complimentary in one culture is highly offensive in others (a survey of over 3,700 European travellers has revealed)! Oops...
TripAdvisor has found out and revealed that while the significance of some hand gestures are universal, others can be cause confusion from country to country. Over 80% of Brits are unfamiliar to the fact that the ‘sign of the horns’, which has been widely adopted by rock music fans and is formed by extending the index and little fingers while holding the middle and ring fingers down with the thumb, is in fact a highly offensive gesture in France, Italy and Spain.
The coin can be flipped though because one gesture us Brits find offensive is an open hand, palm facing the individual as highly offensive due to the dismissive and aggressive connotations we associate with this gesture. However you will find that the Italians and Spanish see it as friendly and calming.
This is a mistake made not just by the Brits though as the results have shown then some French (11%) Italians (12%) and Spanish (11%) had no idea of the two fingered salute being highly insulting in our culture.
Furthermore, although British travellers are stereotyped to speak louder to break the communication barrier with non-English speaking individuals, only 2% admitted to doing this!
Saima Omar - @Lookitssaima