

When Italians chat, hands and fingers do the talking - maxwell
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/world/europe/when-italians-chat-hands-and-fingers-do-the-talking.html

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cliveowen
As an Italian who was born and raised in Rome, I can attest the veracity of
the article. It is in fact an habit so entrenched in our culture that when I
first saw some movie joking about this, I couldn't understand what the fuss
was about. Does not everyone gesticulate when he speaks? Yeah, but up to a
point. Now I recognize that when it comes to talking we are unique in that it
seems like words aren't enough to convey a message, hence the numerous
gestures. Since when I became aware of this I also learned that it's actually
pretty easy to educate oneself no to resort to gestures to speak his mind,
even though they're so part of the language that cannot be completely
eliminated. I guess that if one were to quickly spot an Italian his or her
hands would be the telltale sign.

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obviouslygreen
Thanks very much for adding your perspective. The article itself is very
intriguing and points out things I just would not have understood, even from
'watching' spoken Italian, as an intrinsic part of the language as it is
actually used in its native culture. Having the extra nudge from someone who's
part of the culture makes it even more educational.

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Historiopode
A warning: this traditional, over-the-top gesturing is particularly common in
certain cities and segments of population. (The kind of colourful things that
short tourism&culture articles like to talk about.) Elsewhere? Not so much. If
you were so careless as to extend this stereotype to —say— the modern urban
youth or the well-educated expat, you would likely be mocked as a clueless
American tourist, and asked about how many guns you keep at home. :)

For perspective: I was born in northern Italy. Very few people within my
social circles ever used any of the traditional gestures; when they did, they
deliberately exaggerated the movements for comical effect, or put on a
southern accent. Indeed, I have only recently discovered that gesturing is
considered to be such a prominent, common feature of Italian culture... by
reading English articles about it.

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toyg
Well, those "segments" include most of the (disgraceful) Italian élite, so
uhm. Just watch a political debate: you'll never find one without the making-
a-point "vertical-OK" or the please-dont-talk-idiocy "join-hands-in-prayer",
be it from Northern or Southern politicians, journalists, pundits, scholars or
whatnot.

TBH, one of the effects of living abroad for more than a decade has been, for
me, the loss of that smug Northern superiority complex. With all due respect
to Giorgio Gaber, any pretence of Northern non-Italian-ness died with the
first Berlusconi government.

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gioele
The definitive resource for Italian's hand gesture is "Supplement to the
italian dictionary" [1] by the great designer Bruno Munari.

It is a semi-serious dictionary of gestures: how to perform them, what they
mean, how common they are, when not to use them. It is mostly a work of art,
and art for the sake of art, nevertheless I found it very complete and
reliable.

[1]
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22Supplement+to+the+italian+dicti...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22Supplement+to+the+italian+dictionary%22+bruno+munari)

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gdonelli
I'm italian and I really think we don't use gesture more than other
nationalities... truth is there is fascination about this, and americans in
particular love the story... still don't get why

~~~
toyg
It's not just about over-use, it's about codes: us Italians have a wide range
of very well-defined nonverbal codes, which is why "others" notice them.
Brits, for example, might be gesticulating wildly in some situations, but
their hand-waving will be very generic (open-hand, numbers and little else).

I personally put it down to the historical problem of Italians not having an
official language until late XIX-century, while being a melting pot of people
coming and going from/to the whole of Europe/Africa/Asia for thousands of
years. Nonverbal codes were clearly essential, it's not a surprise they're
still around.

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siscia
In Italy there is not just a culture. If you move of 50km you actually call
stuff with differents names here in Italy.

As Example:

Ciaccino -> Siena

Schiacciata -> Firenze

Siena and Firenze actually are 1 hour away.

It is clear that every sub-italian-culture have different words and gesture.

I want to add that we use the same gesture in an extraordinary range of
expression. The same "F __k you " can be a joke or a serious one and we will
use the same gesture.

Finally, only 20% of our communication is verbal, the rest is un-spoken
communication. I can guess that here in Italy the 30% is verbal+gesture
communication, the rest is all about the __tone of the voice __(very
important), the position of the body and other stuff.

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oscardelben
I also found that gesture is much more used in the center and south of Italy.

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amadvance
This page is a funny, but extremely accurate, Italian gesture guide.

[http://www.amusingplanet.com/2010/11/illustrated-guide-to-
it...](http://www.amusingplanet.com/2010/11/illustrated-guide-to-italian-
hand.html)

I'm used to show it to my foreign colleagues to help them to understand me :)

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thelukester
Yeah, Italians use gestures when talking; no kidding. In the video, they
showed dozens of gestures, most which I had no idea what they meant. I would
have found it much more informative and interesting if they explained what all
those common gestures actually meant.

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paol
Well there you go then:
[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/07/01/world/europe/A...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/07/01/world/europe/A-Short-
Lexicon-of-Italian-Gestures.html?ref=europe)

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davidw
Most of these are pretty easy to pick up even as a foreigner, although you've
got to be careful - I once accidentally spilled a drink on my wife while
gesticulating when I was telling a story.

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qwertzlcoatl
My Italian girlfriend told me the "Where are you going?" gesture is inaccurate
in this video. It's mostly used as a "What the fuck?!" hypothetical question.

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tagliala
yes, "where the f*ck are you going?" :)

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vanni
Nice "classic" (2009-2010) English-captioned drawings by Alfredo Cassano about
Italian Popular Gestures (click on images for bigger resolution):

[http://www.alfredocassano.com/buyitaliangestures.html](http://www.alfredocassano.com/buyitaliangestures.html)

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lbebber
We have a joke around here that Italians can never drown as long as they're
speaking.

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izietto
I'm italian and I want to point out that we use gestures without realizing it:
we can't reproduce them with the same naturalness as before, and often we
don't even know which gesture we made just before.

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digitalWestie
odd - I don't interpret the 'afraid' gesture as they do - I'd use it to
indicate a place is full of people

