Etiquette 101
A veritable U.N. of international hand gestures.
Photo: Jeremy Liebman, Conde Nast Traveler
One element of being a responsible traveler that I don't talk about much in this column is, well, having good manners. No, I don't mean keeping your elbows off the table or opening the car door for your guide. But there are a lot of gestures that we Americans use which are major faux pas in other parts of the world. Take the guy wearing the tie at the top of this photo. Looks like he's beckoning for his friend to come over. But in Indonesia that gesture is a signal for soliciting a prostitute. Oops.
There's an entire section on hand gesture dos and don'ts in the April issue of Conde Nast Traveler -- and it's not available online, only in our print version. So go out and buy your copy today to find out how to say "Good luck" in Germany, "I'm sorry" in India, and much more.
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Omniture events in request:
One classic is that in many parts of the world, the common American circled-thumb-and-forefinger A-OK sign means, to put it politely, "You're an anus."
Posted by: stepwilk | April 16, 2008 at 11:51 AM
This type of info is absolutely invaluable, and often times ignored/forgotten; which doesn't help the stereotype of "ignorant American traveler." The article in April's magazine does a really nice job.
When I was working for the Salt Lake Olympic Committee in 2002, we had 2 weeks worth of pre-Games training on International Etiquette and it was amongst the most valuable training that I have ever received. I have since found myself referring back to those lessons when traveling abroad.
Posted by: osulax | April 17, 2008 at 10:32 AM
In Costa Rica, when you hold your hand flat out horizontally to try to show how tall someone is who is shorter than you, Ticos may take a little offense. You only use that gesture to describe the height of animals. You need to hold your hand at the correct height, but vertically.
Posted by: RichardGS | April 17, 2008 at 12:23 PM