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The International Language of Gestures
国际手势语
Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen, and John Bear
保罗·埃克曼，华莱士·V.弗里森，约翰.贝尔
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.
一位美国游客第一次去那不勒斯时，善意的他用大拇指和食指做出了一个“OK”（很好）的手势，感谢服务生周到的服务和可口的饭菜。这位侍者顿时脸色变白，立刻去找经理。他们严肃地讨论是否要报警，以在公共场所做出淫秽下流、令人作呕动作的罪名拘捕这位倒霉的游客。
What happened?
这到底是怎么回事？
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.
大多数游客临出门时都不会忘记带上一本词语手册，这足以帮他们表达并理解Ja（德语）“是”、Nein（德语）“不”、Grazie（德语）“吃”与Uu se trouvent les toilettes（法语）“厕所在哪里”这样的用语。然而，尽管大多数人都知道手势语是跨文化交际的最普遍形式，但他们却没认识到手势语和言语一样具有差异性和地域性，一样也容易引起误解。
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.
想想我们那位困惑的游客吧。拇指和食指形成环状手势在美国表示友好，在法国和比利时则含有侮辱人的意思——“你一文不值”，而在希腊和土耳其，这表示一个侮辱性或者下流的性邀请。
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!
事实上，当你从一个国家或地区来到另一个国家或地区时，你会发现许多手势语具有完全不同的意思。“大拇指竖起向上”总是一个表示肯定的手势吗？绝对不是。上下点头总是表示“对”的意思吗？也不是！
To make matters even more confusing, many hand movements have no meaning at all, in any country.
许多手部动作根本就没有什么含义，不管是在哪个国家，这使得情况更加复杂。
