Scribbling #19: The Sign Language Barrier.

The questioning glance from the work colleague was clear enough, so I held my right hand up with three digits up, indicating that I just threw three pieces of product away that I considered to be no good.  I didn't think much about it until the colleague's questioning glance descended into the pit of his furrowed brow and then stayed there, not able to get out.  He asked if I meant 'four'.

And then I remembered the thumb.

In continental Europe it is quite common for us Brits to completely miscommunicate by thinking that we are being oh-so-very-clever by getting over the language barrier and instead use some basic mime practice instead.  And then we get worried and not a little bit frustrated when even this doesn't work.  As in all cases, the thumb represents 'one', not the first digit, so when I held up three fingers, my colleague immediately and quite naturally believed that I was being very lazy in not using my thumb, or that I had some sort of horrible hand disease that stopped me from using my other fingers unless I placed my thumb in a special way upon my pinky.  In any case, a message that was supposed to have been as simple as this that did not go across well, will probably not be the end of them.  Imagine if you were in a bar or restaurant and you ordered three drinks like I did, and you get four.  Now imagine the hilarity and subsequent slight embarrassment when your friends point this out, believing that you got yourself two, just because.  Same difference.

In many other countries, using hand signs could lead to getting arrested or at least get you into trouble with the local population.  Use of the thumb in a British context means 'goodbye' or 'that's good'.  Use of the thumb in a Middle Eastern context is the equivalent of flipping the bird at someone.  And in a Japanese (let's cover all the angles here, shall we?) means to indicate one of a male gender.  No idea how they came up with that one, but hey.

Also, I was taken aback one day when one lady looked at me very seriously and slapped her wrist a couple of times.  I thought I had done something wrong and, even if I am now over 30, I thought a slap on the wrist was slightly over the top.  After 20 minutes going through the Slovak-English dictionary with her, I found that all she wanted to do was ask what the time was.  I spent another ten trying to explain what a 'slap on the wrist' meant in English.  I was quite impressed with this, since it took at least half an hour to explain 'it's raining cats and dogs outside' last time...