LUCKY NUMBERS AND UNLUCKY GESTURES
It’s been a crazy week as work hots-up in relation to the forthcoming Olympic Games. More than a thousand linguists who have applied to volunteer or work at the Games have been undertaking our tests which have been hosted on our behalf by the International School of Linguists.
I am really proud that the Games are being held in the UK and I think the organisation has just been brilliant, however I am irritated about how the media like to magnify any problem. Of course the difficulty with G4S is serious; but has been immediately resolved by the provision of more soldiers. People are working day and night on the M4 and that will be resolved. So media, stop moaning and start talking about how amazing the Games are going to be.
Today is a date that worries a lot of people, but I’m not going to make more than a passing reference to triskaidekaphobia in this week’s blog, since I don’t suffer from it and in any case, the number 13 – irrespective of whether it falls on a Friday – is lucky in some cultures and unlucky in others. So I think we should wave goodbye to that one.
Which brings me neatly to recent reports about the use of hand gestures. Whenever I read the reports on thebigword’s activities, I’m struck by the increasing demand for the use of Sign Language for those with hearing difficulties. It’s a vital service for so many people and it reminds me that language is not always vocal.
People around the world – even the majority of us who can hear – still add to their spoken language by making a variety of hand gestures. These vary from culture to culture (sometimes causing significant difficulties or even offence) but, due to the growth of worldwide communication, many hand gestures are now pretty much global. Some of these I find very irritating and I’m pleased to read this week that other people do too.
Apparently, the non-obscene hand gesture I find most offensive, which is the extended palm ‘talk to the hand’ is not the most irritating to everyone else. The Number One worst gesture is apparently making inverted commas with both hands like speech marks around what you’re saying. Others in the list include: making a ‘pistol’ shape, hand punching, a throat-cutting gesture (not surprisingly), and the ‘zip it’ gesture across the mouth.
Fortunately, a few hand gestures are considered useful. These include wiggling an imaginary glass to ask for a drink, signalling to a waiter (perhaps for the same reason) or asking for someone to be quiet by putting a finger to your lips.
The report says that one in four people try to avoid using hand gestures but I think it would be a great shame if we removed them altogether. They’re part of our communication system and one of the reasons why it’s so much easier to get the meaning of what someone is saying when face-to-face than over the telephone.
That’s why I have so much respect for the linguists who work on thebigword’s Over the Phone Interpreting service. Not only do they have to understand what Person One is saying, they then have to change it into a different language and say it to Person Two, all in the course of a rapid conversation. It’s an amazing skill.
So in the coming week I’m going to keep my hand gestures to a minimum, except when under extreme provocation of course.
Talking of body language I am attaching to this week’s blog a photograph of our senior executive team and I know they are normally really boring to look at but I hope you can see from our body language that we are not just professional but we enjoy working together. For those of you that don’t know which I am, I am the eye candy in the cerise pink tie.
Have a great weekend.
Larry
I am really proud that the Games are being held in the UK and I think the organisation has just been brilliant, however I am irritated about how the media like to magnify any problem. Of course the difficulty with G4S is serious; but has been immediately resolved by the provision of more soldiers. People are working day and night on the M4 and that will be resolved. So media, stop moaning and start talking about how amazing the Games are going to be.
Today is a date that worries a lot of people, but I’m not going to make more than a passing reference to triskaidekaphobia in this week’s blog, since I don’t suffer from it and in any case, the number 13 – irrespective of whether it falls on a Friday – is lucky in some cultures and unlucky in others. So I think we should wave goodbye to that one.
Which brings me neatly to recent reports about the use of hand gestures. Whenever I read the reports on thebigword’s activities, I’m struck by the increasing demand for the use of Sign Language for those with hearing difficulties. It’s a vital service for so many people and it reminds me that language is not always vocal.
People around the world – even the majority of us who can hear – still add to their spoken language by making a variety of hand gestures. These vary from culture to culture (sometimes causing significant difficulties or even offence) but, due to the growth of worldwide communication, many hand gestures are now pretty much global. Some of these I find very irritating and I’m pleased to read this week that other people do too.
Apparently, the non-obscene hand gesture I find most offensive, which is the extended palm ‘talk to the hand’ is not the most irritating to everyone else. The Number One worst gesture is apparently making inverted commas with both hands like speech marks around what you’re saying. Others in the list include: making a ‘pistol’ shape, hand punching, a throat-cutting gesture (not surprisingly), and the ‘zip it’ gesture across the mouth.
Fortunately, a few hand gestures are considered useful. These include wiggling an imaginary glass to ask for a drink, signalling to a waiter (perhaps for the same reason) or asking for someone to be quiet by putting a finger to your lips.
The report says that one in four people try to avoid using hand gestures but I think it would be a great shame if we removed them altogether. They’re part of our communication system and one of the reasons why it’s so much easier to get the meaning of what someone is saying when face-to-face than over the telephone.
That’s why I have so much respect for the linguists who work on thebigword’s Over the Phone Interpreting service. Not only do they have to understand what Person One is saying, they then have to change it into a different language and say it to Person Two, all in the course of a rapid conversation. It’s an amazing skill.
So in the coming week I’m going to keep my hand gestures to a minimum, except when under extreme provocation of course.
Talking of body language I am attaching to this week’s blog a photograph of our senior executive team and I know they are normally really boring to look at but I hope you can see from our body language that we are not just professional but we enjoy working together. For those of you that don’t know which I am, I am the eye candy in the cerise pink tie.
Have a great weekend.
Larry
