Gestures and Awkward Meanings

I taught English in a very small town in Greece for a year. It was a different experience because their culture was a mix of Greek and Bulgarian cultures. As an American, I felt really awkward there when I used gestures while speaking because some of the gestures which are OK in my culture don’t exist in their culture, and sometimes they are considered rude.

On the very first day of school there, I learnt that holding your thumb up to say that something is OK was an insult to the family of the person you’re talking to! Our OK sign, which we use almost every day, was considered rude and insulting.

To add to the confusion, some of the gestures were completely opposite of what we have in our culture. For example, in America and most Western countries, we shake our head to mean no. However, in their culture shaking your head means yes. Another example is how you pay attention to people. It is polite in my culture to show your full face to someone who’s talking to you, but things are different there. You have to stand in a way that your ear is facing them! That is a sign of giving 100% of your attention to them.

All of these cultural differences caused misunderstandings, and sometimes they made me sound illogical, impolite or completely wrong. I highly recommend reading about the cultures which you want to live in before you move.