Adnalysis (ad-nal-uh-sis)
Ability to analyze an advertisement and give your personal opinion.
Difficulty: Easy
A gesture is a form of nonverbal communication and most of the time, they are embelms developed in various cultures usually used to substitute verbal communications. However, once must understand that not all gestures are universal and we should respect this fact in order to prevent ourselves from offending people from different cultures.
In the Ad, we can see two distinct gestures that was brought up that may seem normal to one culture but not to another. One of them is the trusting of the palm and the other is putting legs on the table.
The trusting of the palm with fingers pointing outwards is commonly seen as a gesture to symbolise a stop sign. However, in Greece, this gesture is highly offensive. This gesture in the greek culture is equivalent to the middle finger and somehow meant the “F” word as well.
Similarly, resting your feet on the table is a utterly rude gesture. Being Asians, we do understand that it is rude to do so and in the Thai and Vietnamese Culture especially, this gesture is very rude.
Understanding one’s culture is important to maintain a good relationship with people in this globalised world. Sometimes, it may also create a little embarassment but I believe no one will blame you for being polite. As we saw from Advertisement, the Japanese representative tried to shake hand with the British while the latter chose to bow with respect to each other’s culture.
Think globally, act locally. This is known as “Glocalization” and HSBC had capitalized on this aspect to market themselves as the World’s local bank.
Hope you guys enjoy the clip.
So can anyone think of gestures that are interpreted differently in different culture? Please share with us.
do you know that the twist or v sign cute japanese girls do is offensive in some parts of England or Australia cause it means up yours… LOL!
I believe this is a good ad! Loads of people are ignorant about the symbols and emblems in a culture and somehow they will bring forth that ignorance without first researching the country and the social etiquette before going over.
Essentially i feel that not only should the cultural aspect of the country should be observed but also, the history and religious aspect should be given a once over before travelling=)
I found this article and found it immensely interesting!
Hope you’ll find it equally as interesting too=D
taken from “http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/columns/?article=rudevsign”
Are You Rude? Four Accidental Goofs
Part II: Be very careful with the sign of the V
If you make a V with your middle and index fingers, in most parts of the world people understand the fact that you’re making a peace or victory sign. But you have to be careful which way your palm faces when you’re in England and Australia. There, if you make a V and face the back of your hand outward, it’s shorthand for “up yours.”
Everything’s OK–or maybe not
As if things with France weren’t strained enough, with our renaming of French fries and their rejection of the term e-mail in favor of something entirely French, now we have to deal with the knowledge that the familiar handsign for “OK,” one recognized as, well okay, by 98 percent of Americans, means “worthless” in France.
If your waiter asks you if your escargot was good, you’re better off getting mocked for your bad French accent than if you try to signal your appreciation with the good ol’ OK sign.
In other countries, like Brazil, it’s even worse, as the OK sign symbolizes a very private orifice. Less frequently, the OK symbol combined with a chopping motion of the hand takes on the meaning, “you are so worthless, I will kill you tomorrow (because you’re too worthless for me to bother killing today).”
While this certainly is an elegant insult, it sounds impossible to believe. But it’s all spelled out in Gestures, by Desmond Morris, Peter Collett, Peter Marsh and Marie O’Shaughnessy. Gestures is a fascinating book that summarizes three years of research in Europe about what certain gestures there are thought to mean.
The rule of thumb (and index finger) on this one: Don’t make the sign outside of the United States.
Thumbs up
Hollywood would have us believe that this gesture originated with the Roman gladiators, and that a thumbs up or thumbs down would determine whether the gladiator lived or died. But this is not correct; there is even evidence to indicate that originally, thumbs down might have been the positive sign.
Whatever its origins, this is an ancient gesture, dating far back before the heyday of Siskel and Ebert.
In the United States, it can mean “everything is all right,” or, “I need a ride.”
But this meaning is by no means universal.
In Nigeria, tourists have been beaten up for trying to hitchhike with the aid of their thumbs. In Australia, it once again means “up yours,” something that makes me wonder if the Australians have as many ways of saying “up yours” as Native Alaskans do for snow. The thumb can also be used as a counting figure, but differently in different parts of the world. In Japan, for example, it means “five,” while in Germany, it means “two.” While this doesn’t seem like a big deal, it could certainly lead to confusion in a crowded Schnitzelbank or sushi bar when you find yourself with more beverages than you can drink.
Part III: Showing the Bottom of Shoes
At the risk of making an inexcusable pun, I will say that the agony of the feet can be a real thing.
In his entertaining book Gestures: The Do’s and Taboos of Body Language Around the World, Roger Axtell describes a botched 1995 meeting between Saddam Hussein and Bill Richardson, who was then a U.S. Congressman from New Mexico. Richardson was trying to bring about the release of a pair of American hostages, but almost ended the meeting at its start because he crossed his legs and flashed a little sole.
In some Arab cultures, as in other cultures, to show a person the bottom of your shoe is a major insult. It’s worse than metaphorically putting your foot in your mouth; it’s like displaying your lowest, filthiest body part. An equivalent gesture in the United States might be to flash your bare bottom. How would you feel if someone did that to you while conducting business?
Given the way some people feel about the foot bottoms, it’s also a bad idea to put one’s shoes on a desk or other piece of furniture, especially in places like Japan, Thailand, and France, where these moves are considered taboo.
The bottom line
Naturally, there are many more than four ways to be accidentally rude. Probably the least of which is in not knowing that the French commonly eat their freedom fries with a knife and fork, as perhaps you should, when you’re visiting them.
As trivial as some of these things sound, they’re not. Bill Richardson’s near-failed attempt to get American hostages out of Iraq after the first Gulf War seems like a dramatic example until you consider how much of our human language isn’t spoken or written–it’s shown.
Emotion experts like Daniel Goleman say that 90 percent of emotional communication is done without words. Surely much of the gap is made up by gestures, and even the unintentional ones can provoke real emotions in the people who are reading our unspoken languages.
As the world becomes an increasingly connected place, the potential for misunderstandings and miscommunication rises. Sometimes the results are funny, but sometimes they’re tragic.
Either way, it pays to understand what we’re really saying when we speak without talking, and definitely increases the chances that the people you meet around the world will give you the thumbs up–and they’ll mean it as a compliment.
At this rat, I think I’ll keep my hands by my side unless I have to shake someone’s hands LOL!!!
Hey Dee, thanks for sharing so much information. I never knew that’s so many meanings to hand gestures until i read up on these gestures after watching the ad and also after reading what you provided.
I believe that I would also be more aware of of hand gestures for now on in order to prevent sending the wrong message to others in this globalised world.
Interesting advertisement. I never knew that showing your palm had a totally different meaning in another society. One form of nonverbal communication i can think of would be the slurping of noodles. When I was in Japan, i was told that we should slurp our noodles as loud as we could if we felt that the food was delicious. However, as we all know, in Chinese cultures, we will be told off by our elders for being rude and uncivilized.
wow! The comment by diyan is actually longer than the post itself. I believe other than gestures, there are also many different aspects of cultural differences and understandings. We must always be careful when enter a foreign ground.
haha I included an excrept from the website cause the website was based on a column that will be taken off soon if I’m not wrong=)
Great ad which appropriately demonstrates the power of knowledge in international customs and markets. The ad also emphasizes on how different cultures can be and the distinct social rules observed in them
Seriously, I never thought that showing the palm is rude. Thanks for informing with this advertisement you found. Now, I shall be more aware of gestures.
Well, we all have lots to learn. It is not too late to learn about the cultural differences. Afterall, we are living in this high speed advancing globalising world where we are drawn closer to the other countries by the second. In future, we may take just 2hours to fly to New York. We can have lunch in Paris, dinner in Tokyo and spend the night back in our comfortable bed in the end of the day. That could be 30 to 40 years away, but we are definitely very well still alive by then and we need to know other cultures just like we should understand our next door neighbours. =)
Haha jesmund I never knew holding your palm up could ever be considered as being vulgar to certain people. And there are actually many people who know about these rude actions such as resting your leg on the table etc, but they do not really bother to make the conscious effort to change that habit or portray it at all. I guess to some people, their gestures dont mean much to them afterall.