SUBTEXTHandbook of Gestures, cite an example that occurred in Colombia.
There, the hand held out, palm down, is used to indicate the
height of animals, never of humans. A lecturer from the States
used this gesture to indicate the size of preschool children. This
inadvertent misuse of a symbolic gesture broke up the class and
made him an object of laughter. This is why anyone dealing with
a foreign culture, at home or abroad, should know not only the
culture's language but also its symbolic gestures and their subtexts.