Tie an Italian's hands behind his
back and he'll be speechless.Caesar. Today, most people live in societies where freedom of
speech flourishes and usually anyone who wants to put
forward an opinion can do so. In Britain, Australia and
the USA it's even permissible to interrupt the President or
prime Minister with your opinion or to give a condescending
slow handclap, as happened to Prime Minister Tony Blair
in 2003 during a television discussion on the Iraqi crisis. In
many countries, the hands have taken on the role of 'punctua-
tion marks' to regulate turn-taking in conversation. The
Hands Raised gesture has been borrowed from the Italians
and French, who are the biggest users of 'hand talking', but
it is still rarely seen in England, where waving your
hands about when you speak is seen as inappropriate or
poor style.
In Italy, the order of talking is simple - the person with his
hands raised has the floor and does the talking. The listener
will have his hands down or behind his back. So the trick is to
try to get your hands in the air if you want to get a word in and
this can be done either by looking away and then raising them
or by touching the other person's arm to suppress their hand
as you raise yours. Many people assume that when Italians
talk they are being friendly or intimate because they continu-
ally touch each other, but in fact each is attempting to restrict
the other's hands and take the floor.
In this chapter we'll evaluate some of the most common
hand and thumb gestures in widespread use.
Hand and Thumb GesturesOn the One Hand...
Watching how a person summarises a discussion giving both
Points of view can reveal whether they have a bias one way or
another. They usually hold one hand palm up and articulate