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The International Language of Gestures
國際手勢語
Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen, and John Bear
保羅·埃克曼，華萊士·V.弗里森，約翰.貝爾
On his first trip to Naples, a well-meaning American tourist thanks his waiter for a good meal well-served by making the "A-Okay" gesture with his thumb and forefinger. The waiter pales and heads for the manager. They seriously discuss calling the police and having the hapless tourist arrested for obscene and offensive public behavior.
一位美國游客第一次去那不勒斯時，善意的他用大拇指和食指做出了一個“OK”（很好）的手勢，感謝服務(wù)生周到的服務(wù)和可口的飯菜。這位侍者頓時臉色變白，立刻去找經(jīng)理。他們嚴(yán)肅地討論是否要報警，以在公共場所做出淫穢下流、令人作嘔動作的罪名拘捕這位倒霉的游客。
What happened?
這到底是怎么回事？
Most travelers wouldn't think of leaving home without a phrase book of some kind, enough of a guide to help them say and understand "Ja," "Nein," "Gmzie" and Uù se trouvent les toilettes?" And yet, while most people are aware that gestures are the most common form of cross-cultural communication, they don't realize that the language of gestures can be just as different, just as regional and just as likely to cause misunderstanding as the spoken word.
大多數(shù)游客臨出門時都不會忘記帶上一本詞語手冊，這足以幫他們表達(dá)并理解Ja（德語）“是”、Nein（德語）“不”、Grazie（德語）“吃”與Uu se trouvent les toilettes（法語）“廁所在哪里”這樣的用語。然而，盡管大多數(shù)人都知道手勢語是跨文化交際的最普遍形式，但他們卻沒認(rèn)識到手勢語和言語一樣具有差異性和地域性，一樣也容易引起誤解。
Consider our puzzled tourist. The thumb-and-forefinger-in-a-circle gesture, a friendly one in America, has an insulting meaning in France and Belgium: "You're worth zero," while in Greece and Turkey it is an insulting or vulgar sexual invitation.
想想我們那位困惑的游客吧。拇指和食指形成環(huán)狀手勢在美國表示友好，在法國和比利時則含有侮辱人的意思——“你一文不值”，而在希臘和土耳其，這表示一個侮辱性或者下流的性邀請。
There are, in fact, dozens of gestures that take on totally different meanings as you move from one country or region to another. Is "thumbs up" always a positive gesture? Absolutely not. Does nodding the head up and down always mean "Yes"? No!
事實上，當(dāng)你從一個國家或地區(qū)來到另一個國家或地區(qū)時，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)許多手勢語具有完全不同的意思。“大拇指豎起向上”總是一個表示肯定的手勢嗎？絕對不是。上下點頭總是表示“對”的意思嗎？也不是！
To make matters even more confusing, many hand movements have no meaning at all, in any country.
許多手部動作根本就沒有什么含義，不管是在哪個國家，這使得情況更加復(fù)雜。
