I was reading this article published by %26quot;Budget Travel on Line%26quot; and wondered what other hand signals one should be careful about in France?
The following is the article
%26quot;You find yourself at an outdoor café in Marseille noshing on niçoise salad when the garçon asks how your meal is. You flash him the %26quot;OK%26quot; sign. He looks puzzled, you keep eating, he storms off. Faux pas! Now you%26#39;re sitting there with your mouth full of greens, feeling like an oaf.
What just happened? Well, our %26quot;OK%26quot; may be the best-known (non-vulgar) hand gesture in the United States, but in the south of France it means %26quot;worthless%26quot; or %26quot;zero.%26quot; Same thing goes for China. If you were in Germany, the %26quot;OK%26quot; hand signal is such an insult that you might end up wearing that salad. In Mexico, it means %26quot;xxx,%26quot; and you%26#39;ll only get more confusion in Japan, where it means %26quot;money%26quot;--because the circle formed by your thumb and index finger resembles a coin.
Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Tunisia, Russia, Paraguay, Malta, Singapore, Spain, and Greece are other spots where it%26#39;s not a good idea to flash the %26quot;OK%26quot; (usually because it refers to certain body parts and constitutes an insult). So %26quot;OK%26quot; is not OK everywhere, OK? If that%26#39;s too confusing, just take a tip from the waiter, and leave the %26quot;OK%26quot; gesture at home.
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What is a %26quot;OK signal%26quot; ? Is it the same as divers ? (joining thumb and forefinger in a round shape ?) Well if it is this one, it actually means %26quot;zero%26quot; or %26quot;bad%26quot;. So I understand whay the waiter was puzzled, lol!!
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I%26#39;m not fond of Budget Travel because I think, frankly, they write things just to take up space between advertisements. This is a perfect example.
I mean, think about it: when was the last time you used, or someone use, that hand gesture (or any) to a waiter to indicate pleasure with a meal?
I dine out frequently--have for most of my adult life, and don%26#39;t think I%26#39;ve ever seen anyone give %26quot;the most common (non-vulgar) hand gesture in the US%26quot; to a waiter.
This reminds me of reading one time a few years ago of their list of secrets to save money on the road, which included checking payphones for loose change. I mean, come on....
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Your are right Seth there was a huge ad for Travel Advisior on that page with that article.
I would never use that gesture for a waiter but I am sure there are other hand gestures that are normal in the USA that mean different things in the French culture.
My French cousin had me explain the expression %26quot; Don%26#39;t let the door slam you in the butt on the way out%26quot;.
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Yes, Anneparis that is the hand signal.
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A good idea is to avoid what I think is called the %26quot;Texas Horns%26quot; (maybe a texan can help me here)
In the rest of the world it is %26quot;cornuto%26quot; - the making of the sign of the cuckold. In Italy it could get you killed........... Not so sure about Paris, but better safe than sorry.
(Also - in Queensland Australia, amongst older people, the %26quot;thumbs up%26quot; is considered offensive)
So just flap your arms about, but avoid making hand getsures - you can do the gallic shrug with added hands - but nothing else is totally safe
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It is the Same as the Divers OK signal,
to be honest as a waiter - if you flashed me an ok sign I would be a bit offended.
that would say the meal is just ok - a little lame.
I find the term %26quot;cuckold%26quot; intresting, it is so unused in the U.S I would expect 40% of the populace has never heard it, but in most of europe that about the biggest insult you can give.
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FYI, a French %26quot;OK%26quot; signal, though not as ubiquitously used as in Brazil, would be a thumbs up.
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To take a bit of a cultural detour here...
The standard offensive gesture in the US is of course the well-known vertical middle finger %26quot;flipping the bird%26quot; (Why so called i know not). I also do not know the origin of this esture.
In the UK, the equivalent gesture is the raised and spread first TWO fingers of the right hand - the Nixonian peace gesture or Churchillian %26quot;V for Victory%26quot; gesture, only with the back of the hand turned to the viewer.
I have read that the gesture originated with the English (actually mostly Welsh) archers in the 14th/15th centuries. It seems the longbow was so devastating (at e.g. Crécy, Poitiers, Agincourt) that any bowman captured by the French would have the two first fingers of his right hand, which are of course the crucial fingers in drawing the bow and releasing the arrow, chopped off.
Consequently, in any battle in which the English were about to defeat the French, as the foot-soldiers routed the enemy, the archers would raise these two fingers in a kind of sneeringly triumphant gesture, as in %26quot;I%26#39;ve still got %26#39;em, you scummy French b*st*rds!%26quot;
I now return you to your regular programme...
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Irishrover: This is what I heard about that gesture. I do not know if it is the real story but it is a good one !
During the hundred years war the English invented the yard bow to kill the French. When the French captured the English they would cut off the plucking finger so they could not pull back on the bow.
The English started to hold up that finger which was called the plucking finger and show the French that they still had their plucking finger yelling that they still had their plucking finger and could use the yard bow against them.
I do not know how true the story is but I have been reading about Dordogne area and that was one article written about!
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To avoid any confusion when I%26#39;m in Paris, I plan to only smile and say %26quot;merci%26quot;. I hope that doesn%26#39;t get me in trouble.
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