{"id":3468,"date":"2015-07-13T09:23:09","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T13:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=3468"},"modified":"2020-10-01T14:49:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T18:49:13","slug":"seven-italian-hand-gestures-worth-knowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2015\/07\/13\/seven-italian-hand-gestures-worth-knowing\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Italian Hand Gestures Worth Knowing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Itchy<\/a><\/p>\n

Many years ago, back when my wife was just my girlfriend and I was visiting her family for the first time in rural Italy, I spoke about as much Italian as a plate of spaghetti Bolognese. Unfortunately, her family spoke as much English as a chicken pot pie, so there were plenty of hilarious misunderstandings. I tried my best with what little Italian I could muster (mostly just Spanish accented hopefully in Italian) and managed fairly well with her parents. Her grandparents, however, didn\u2019t even speak Italian<\/em>. They spoke Veneto<\/em>, the local dialect. Adorably, they would ask my then-girlfriend how to say things in Italian\u2014they assumed\u00a0that I didn\u2019t speak Veneto, but surely\u00a0I spoke Italian, or what would I be doing there? Needless to say, they might as well have been speaking Latin.<\/p>\n

Anyway, at one point I was left alone with her grandfather. The both of us at a lack of words, he looked at me, grinned, and did this:\"ItalianI had no idea what to make of it. Did he have a stomachache? Was he making a comment on my height? Did he want to be chopped in half? He assumed Italian gestures were universal\u2014sadly, I remained utterly baffled. I decided to try what I was fairly sure was a universal sign, and smiled and nodded. Luckily, this turned out to be exactly the correct response.<\/p>\n

As you probably know, Italian is not only spoken with your mouth; it is also spoken with your hands. There are thousands of gestures ranging from subtle to obvious (many of them involving the depiction of or referral to genitals \u2013 thank you, Italian machismo), but there are a few that are fairly commonplace, and worth knowing, if you\u2019re going to be learning Italian. I learned what my wife\u2019s grandfather was trying to tell me, and many more, and now I will pass them on to you, dear reader.<\/p>\n

Seven Italian Gestures Worth Knowing<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Italian<\/span>The classic, stereotypical Italian hand signal. I used to think it meant \u201cgood, great\u201d or was simply a mobster\u2019s way of pairing his mustachioed frown with a gesture. WRONG. This gesture must be paired with a \u201cWTF\u201d look, as that\u2019s exactly what it means: \u201cwhat the <\/span>farfalla<\/em> are you talking about?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"4\"<\/a><\/span>Not \u201cokay,\u201d not \u201cgood,\u201d but <\/span>perfetto<\/em>. Things went off without a snag, everything\u2019s lovely, this pasta <\/span>pomodoro <\/em>is just heavenly. Perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ItalianUsed on someone who thinks they\u2019re pretty big, but is in fact an oaf. \u201cLook at this guy! Look at you! What an idiot!\u201d Can be used as a proper insult, or all in good fun. Like sarcasm, Italian hand gestures used strategically in different contexts can have subtly different meanings.<\/p>\n

\"ItalianLooks like an insult, and I suppose it could be taken as one, but technically it isn\u2019t. Simply means, \u201cI don\u2019t care.\u201d Fuhgettaboutit.<\/p>\n

\"ItalianThis one is fairly graphic when you know what it\u2019s referring to. It means \u201cscared,\u201d and can be used either as an admission of fear (\u201cI\u2019m scared\/nervous!\u201d) or as a taunt (\u201cscared? Huh? Are ya?\u201d). What I\u2019ve been told it literally symbolizes is the puckering of your\u2026er, posterior.<\/p>\n

\"ItalianFinally, we get to Nonno<\/em> (grandpa)\u2019s mysterious signal: \u201chungry?\u201d As you can see, smiling and nodding is the only<\/em> correct nonverbal response. And once you\u2019ve finished what was no doubt a delicioso<\/em> meal:<\/p>\n

\"Italian\u201cTasty!\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone got any other Italian hand gestures I might have missed? What about other languages that rely heavily on gestures and the like?<\/p>\n

All photos provided by the author.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Italian

Many years ago, back when my wife was just my girlfriend and I was visiting her family for the first time in rural Italy, I spoke about as much Italian as a plate of spaghetti Bolognese. Unfortunately, her family spoke as much English as a chicken pot pie, so there were plenty of hilarious misunderstandings…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":3477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[542801],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3468","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3468"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3494,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3468\/revisions\/3494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}