Nice gesture

The faux pas was mentioned above - but you requested concrete stories. A friend of mine was the director of an HR department in the UAE. He's an extremely nice man and quite obviously sincere. Apparently he had a habit of crossing his feet in such a way that the soles of his shoes showed - he had always sat like this and had no idea he was doing it.

A delegation of his employees visited him and asked on behalf of all the he please stop it. Although they all knew he was not being deliberately offensive, it was so noticable to everyone in the room that they couldn't hear what he was saying. Of course he complied, and now tells the story on himself.

Sorry to thread jack a little, but I'm surprised that you encountered such hostility in Indo in 2004, Nette. I went to Indonesia, Java and South Sulawesi to be exact, in 2004-2005 for 6 weeks, I didn't encounter any hostility whatsoever, and being able to speak Indonesian well was probably a factor. The closest I got to a hostile comment was a guy saying that he likes Australians but he hates the disrespectful behavior they demonstrate in Kuta Bali. I completely agreed with him. Many, not all, Australians do offend the local culture but the Balinese are probably used to it so they have accepted it more. I went back to Indo, Bali and Flores, in Dec-Jan 2006=2007 and I never received a hostile reception.

Back too gestures, well more of a vocal one, in Australia we use a-ha to indicate "yes" and uh-uh to indicate "no". The Indonesians us uh-uh to indicate "yes" which confused me for a while but gradually understood it.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>I went to Indonesia, Java and South Sulawesi to be exact, in 2004-2005 for 6 weeks, I didn't encounter any hostility whatsoever<hr></blockquote> i'd respectfully suggest that your experience as a man can't really be compared with mine as a woman, luke. a lot of the hostility i experienced was of the 'white women are all satanic whores' variety, which is something you'll luckily never have screamed at you in the street.

but as i've already pointed out - the reception wasn't universally hostile. apart from abuse and hostile glares from many strangers, and ignorant comments about politics from some people, most of the people i actually got to KNOW were warm and friendly, as were almost all of the strangers i encountered outside jakarta.

sorry to threadjack!

another gesture faux pas i thought of - isn't thrusting the palm of your hand towards a person's face ('moutza') considered extremely offensive in greece and some other countries? hence police use the back of their hand to mean 'stop' when directing traffic?

Hello everybody,

Thank you ever so much for all your great replies, they're really helpful. If anyone out there has some good concrete examples of instances where they've experienced gesture misunderstanding I would really appreciate you telling me the stories.

Best wishes,

Laura

I forgot to mention that in South Africa the gesture with finger tips of one hand together usually means you're nipping (afraid)

President G W Bush came to Australia a few years ago and was photographed trying to flash a V for victory sign from his car. Unfortunately his hand was around the wrong way and it looked like he was saying "up you!".

In the USA and other places in the western world, crossed fingers means 'good luck'. In Vietnam it is a very course representation of the virgina, and should not be used.

After walking streets running open sewage, it's totally understandable why you remove your shoes entering a house (where people sit, eat and sleep on the carpet); and why you'd NEVER point the bottom of your shoes towards anyone. It's NOT just some quaint cultural convention.

Off topic but similarly, after seeing pigs wallowing and rooting in sewage, you understand why some folks are appalled that others eat pork.

OP: many of the above classic "faux pas" are taught and well known; so thankfully, there aren't more examples and stories.

VVT:

A lot of manure goes into growing veges, but I'm still happy to eat them. :)

Although, one farm I worked on briefly was using human waste... I was less keen to eat their produce.

#25 -- He may have been imitating this guy, if indeed the story is true. It smacks of urban legend to me.

"When I was buying a ticket in Italy I indicated "uno" ticket with my index finger raised. Of course, I had forgotten that finger counting is different in Italy and ended up with 2 tickets.

I'm not sure I´ve understood, here.
I'm Italian and I indicate "uno", raising my index finger. All Italian people do the same. I don't know other ways to indicate "uno" using your hand. Well, sometimes people use their thumb, but this is most used to mean "Ok".