Talking with Hands

In the English-speaking world, to talk with one's hands is a sign of poor breeding. For Arabs of all social levels, however, gestures are an indispensable part of any conversation. "To tie an Arab's hands while he is speaking," writes Robert A. Barakat in the Journal of Popular Culture, "is tantamount to tying his tongue." To prove his point,

Barakat, an anthropologist at Newfoundland's Memorial University, recently gathered a dictionary of gestures from throughout the Arab world and was able to give specific definitions to no fewer than 247.

Although the majority of the gestures are obscene, many serve to convey respectable and useful information. If, for instance, a man in Saudi Arabia kisses the top of another man's head, it is a sign of apology. In Jordan and three other Arab countries, to flick the right thumbnail against the front teeth means the gesturer has no money or only a little. Bedouins touch their noses three times to show friendship. In Libya, it is customary for men to twist the tips of their forefingers into their cheeks when speaking to beautiful women.

Body Language. Many of the gestures collected by Barakat are tacit tools of flirtation. Northern Syrians blow smoke in a woman's face to show that they desire her. In Lebanon, the same message is conveyed by punching the left palm with a closed right fist.

All Arabs, according to Barakat, share a certain basic vocabulary of body language. They stand close together and frequently touch each other in a conversation, and they look each other in the eye constantly, instead of letting their gaze drift to the side as Americans do. Gesturing is done with the right hand, not the "unclean" left.

While Arabs also employ some of the same gestures as Americans--they tease one another by sticking out their tongues--a few crucial gestures mean diametrically opposite things in the two cultures. When Arabs shake their heads from side to side, they are saying yes instead of no. Moreover, when Arabs mean no, they move the head upward (and click with the tongue), seeming, to Western eyes, to nod assent. Apparently, however, most foreigners find it easy to switch to the Arab system. Barakat relates the story of an English teacher in the Middle East whose wife had remained behind in England. When one of his Arab students left for a trip to England, the teacher suggested that the young man look up his wife while he was there. The student did, and proceeded to have an affair with the lonely woman. On returning home for a visit, the Englishman asked his wife if the Arab had paid a call. Reacting guiltily, the wife denied having met the student --by snapping her head upward and clicking her tongue.

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