Page 47 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

32 Reading Between the Signs

In another incident, an American diplomat was sent to nego-
tiate with Arab leaders during a period of international tension.
The diplomat unknowingly made an extremely insulting gesture
when, while crossing his legs, he showed the sole of his shoe to
the Arab contingent. An aide was discreetly sent over to the Ameri-
can side to inform him of his gaffe, and a crisis was averted. In
Muslim countries, another potentially grave insult is to touch people
or offer them food with the left hand, which is considered dirty.
The “right hand has been glorified throughout the centuries” and
is regarded as clean, while “a main function of the left hand is to
aid in the process of elimination of bodily wastes” (Jensen 266).
Even the simple gesture of placing your hand at a certain level
to describe someone’s height can be cause for offense. In the
United States, if you want to demonstrate how tall your daughter
is, you would hold your hand out, with the palm facing downward
and parallel to the floor at about the level of the top of her head. In
parts of South America, however, that gesture is only employed
for showing the height of animals. “To indicate the height of a
human, one would keep the palm vertical” (267).
Some other gestures with cultural variations include beckon-
ing, counting, hand/arm gestures of contempt, and pointing. In
cultures where indicating with an outstretched finger is seen as
rude, pointing may be accomplished with the nose, chin, or lips.
I remember an incident that showed me the potential pitfalls
in assuming the universality of nonverbal behaviors. Interpreting
at a meeting for a Deaf man who had recently moved to the United
States from the Philippines, I became increasingly uncomfortable
during the transaction because of what I assumed to be his strong
flirtatious manner. After the meeting was over I confided to a friend
of mine, an American Deaf woman who was also at the meeting,
“Boy, did you see the way he came on to me! He kept seductively
raising and lowering his eyebrows and making those kissy lips at
me!” My friend, who happened to have worked in the Peace Corps
with Deaf people in the Philippines, could barely contain her laugh-
ter. “Anna, he wasn’t coming on to you at all,” she explained. “In
the Philippines, one shows understanding or agreement by that
eyebrow movement, and because it is rude to point with the fin-
ger, they point with pursed lips instead.”

02 MINDESS PMKR 32 10/18/04, 11:22 AM