This thing always makes me smile. When I was little I never thought that something that came so natural to me could be perceived as weird/intriguing/surprising by people from other cultures. Growing up I understood that for others it was fascinating and funny, in some kind of way, to see us Italians, in our cities, in bars, restaurants, in squares, in the middle of the street, communicate with one another using very specific hand gestures paired with very specific facial expressions. Itâs not just casually moving our hands up and down chaotically to emphasise what we are saying. I swear, we are able to communicate with each other without saying a single word, just using hand gestures+the facial expression associated with that gesture (we have at least 250 specific hand gestures). The roots of this sociological and anthropological phenomenon are to be found in the history of my country.Â
Basically for a long time Italy was not a unified country, we had dialects and languages that were different in every region, we had what we call âSignorieâ, ruled by rich Italian families, then reigns that were ruled by Austria, Spain, France and so on. Basically, we couldnât understand each other. Latin was the language of the educated, and Italian vulgar (Italian of the origins, which then gave life to the Italian spoken today) was not yet spoken. The only way to understand each other was through gestures. Even now, if a Venetian had to speak in dialect with a Sardinian, and the Sardinian had to speak in Sardinian, they would not understand well, but if they had to use the gestures they would understand instantly. I would love to create a sort of tutorial for italian gestures, maybe one day?Â
If someone knows a gesture, you can ask me what it actually means.Â
Maybe I can start with the most famous one, and the most misunderstood of all:
âđ€đŒâ
When do we use this and what does it mean?  Letâs start with three different situations were you can use this gesture, even though there are more (the intensity of the meaning varies from the situation ur in):
1) What do you mean? (move the hand not to fast, up and down, close to your body) context: a friend says something that you donât understand, you are confused. Facial expression: a kind of grimace with the corners of the mouth pointing downwards, the slit eyes (as when you canât see well from afar), the eyebrows slightly frowning. You are not angry, just confused.
2) Start by raising a bit your open hand in front of the person you are facing (âđŒ-> meaning âstopâ, âwait a minuteâ), then proceed with moving up and down your hand âđ€đŒâ, turning the hand horizontally towards you chest. Youâre not agreeing with what the person is saying, youâre a bit nervous, this gesture means âwait, what the heck are you saying?â. Facial expression: similar as the first one when you put you open hand up (bit more confused), then when you move the hand horizontally, accentuate that expression even more, with the mouth straight and clenched. Context: you are pissed, not angry. Youâre starting to get angry.
3) Raise your arm horizontally, the hand is still in this position âđ€đŒâ but turned horizontally as well. With a lot of emphasis, move the arm towards your chest and then facing it towards the other person, repeatedly. Meaning: âWHAT THE F DO U WANT?â Or âWHAT THE F ARE YOU SAYING TO ME?â. Context: someone insults you, someone makes you very very angry by saying something. Facial expression: the face you do when youâre really angry đ€. (this is not good because this means an argument is going to start).Â
If you want a part 2âŠlet me know? I donât know if this is interesting, or if it was clear.