![]() ![]() Instead of “you’re gonna get killed,” it means “you’re gonna get fired.” In Japan though, the same gesture has a very different meaning. Since the average person doesn’t usually talk about murdering people, this gesture is usually regulated to mobsters and the movies. and other countries, running your finger across your neck is the sign for “you’re gonna get killed,” often accompanied by a delightful “kggghhtttt” sound. She’s not trying to tell you that he had a great tea party last night, chances are instead that he has a new lady in his life. ![]() You discreetly ask another coworker what’s up with him, and instead of outright telling you, she just holds up her pinky finger. Pinkies up! /ijn4cHkNEn- Ryan November 15, 2013īut in Japan “pinky up” doesn’t mean “fancy,” it means “women,” usually referring to someone’s girlfriend/mistress/love of their love that they just met five minutes ago.įor example, you walk into the office bright and smiling one morning and notice that one of your male coworkers walks in with a stride in his step and has eyes that are far too bright and happy for 9 a.m. With my broken finger whenever i drink something it forces me to put my pinky up and im like. ▼ It’s basically the only way to drink tea. and many other countries, putting your pinky up is usually a sign of pretending to be fancy. ▼ When everyone in the office has been talking about you with demon hornsĪll day and it makes you want to show them how much of an oni you really are.Īnother type of hand gesture that can result in some cross-cultural mishaps are the ones that mean something completely different in another culture.įor example, in the U.S. The demon horns mean “angry,” not “evil.” My coworker was using them to say that the woman was “angry” today, not that she was necessarily doing devilish deeds. Of course that’s because my interpretation was off. Now when I thin of the word “demon,” I think “evil” or perhaps “trickster.” And since the person I was speaking to was using the “demon horns” to refer to a coworker, I figured that meant he thought our coworker was “evil” or a prankster of sorts… which made about zero sense because she was the most serious person in the office. It basically consists of putting both hands to the sides of your head and extending your pointer fingers, giving yourself “demon horns.” When I first saw a Japanese person do that, I had no idea what they were doing, so I asked them what it meant. Take the “demon horns” gesture, for example. The funniest cross-cultural hand gestures have to be the ones that almost make sense in another language, but not quite. Be wary of using this one yourself though, since even though you’re an apologetic snow plow, you are still technically snow plowing the people, and they might not appreciate it. Putting up the “sorry chop” is the equivalent of attaching a snow plow in front of your body and lets you freely break through crowds, all the while “apologizing” to each person you push out of the way. One of the funniest uses of the silent “sorry chop” is when someone is making their way through a crowd, especially in a train. But sometimes you can see a “sorry chop” with no words accompanying it when a car lets a pedestrian go first at a crosswalk, or when a friend/coworker shows up late at a restaurant. Typically the “sorry chop” is accompanied by a gomen/sumimasen (“sorry”) or suman (“my bad”), making it pretty easy to understand, which is why it’s only an honorable mention. All of the gestures on this list have to have some sort of meaning behind them, so we won’t see things like the “Japanese peace sign” used when taking photos, since it doesn’t really mean anything other than “you’re taking my picture.” But worry not! It will have its own spot on another list soon enough.Įven though bowing is the more internationally well-known way of saying “sorry” in Japan, another extremely common gesture used to apologize is what you could call “the sorry chop.” It’s more informal than bowing and basically consists of putting your hand up to the side/front of your head and making a tiny chopping motion. That’s why today we’re counting down the top five confusing Japanese hand gestures. Japanese people have just as many hand gestures that make zero sense to outsiders, and being able to understand them is an important step in becoming culturally fluent. As we saw before in top five hand gestures that Japanese people don’t understand, saying “you did a great job” can mean two completely different things depending on whether or not you add air quotes to the “great” part.Īnd now it’s time to look at the other side of the coin. Am I supposed to be insulted or flattered by that?īody language is almost as integral to speaking and understanding a language as the words themselves.
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