- If you're traveling to a foreign country,

don't let the language intimidate you.

Words only comprise seven to 35 percent

of human communiction.

The rest comes via body language,

gestures, posture, facial expressions,

proximity, and touch.

What you should be thinking about

are local hand gestures.

Many gestures that are innocuous or positive

in one country, can be insulting

or obscene in another.

So before you finish packing your bags,

check these out.

The middle finger.

The most offensive gesture in America

is flipping someone off,

shooting the bird,

giving them the finger.

The gesture means screw you, bug off.

You can make the sign calmly,

or you can angrily extend your arm

toward the intended recipient,

depending upon how upset you actually are.

In the past the gesture was a bit shocking to see.

Not so much any more.

And as anyone living in America knows,

you'll see an impressive, or dismaying,

assortment of people using it.

From prominent politicians to movie stars.

The A-OK.

Is everything all right?

In America you might respond to such a question

by flashing the A-OK sign.

This gesture is also widely used in the diving world

to both ask if a diver is fine,

and for the diver to respond back that she is.

Don't make this gesture in Brazil, however,

where it's akin to giving someone the finger.

In Greece and Turkey it's also seen as quite vulgar

and insinuates the person to whom it's given

is a homosexual.

In some Middle Eastern countries,

the A-OK is the symbol for the evil eye.

Perhaps the worst misuse

of this sign in recent history

was committed by then-Vice President

Richard Milhous Nixon in the 1950's.

The VP emerged from his plane in Brazil,

made an A-OK sign with each hand,

and enthusiastically wagged them

to the assembled crowd.

Not surprisingly, the people were astounded

and infuriated at this double insult.

The fig.

It's such a fun game to play

with babies and tots.

Your thumb, of course, is supposedly

the baby's nose.

While this game is common in the United States.

Australia, and Canada, it's never played in Turkey.

In that country, the hand gesture

commonly known as the fig

is like calling someone an unprintable name.

It's also insulting to people in Indonesia,

Italy, India, China, and Russia.

The gesture hails back to ancient times,

when the Romans used it to indicate sexual union.

In a positive manner, that is,

to wish someone good luck and fertility.

It also was seen as a protective measure

against the evil eye.

The Romans called the gesture mano fico,

or fig hand, as they felt the thumb and fist

looked like a woman's private parts.

Fica is Italian for fig and also slang for vulva.

Romans equated figs with female fertility.

The gesture is also the same used

for the letter T in American Sign Language.

Oops.

The crossed fingers.

When you want to wish someone good luck

you'll often tell them, I'll keep my fingers crossed,

that they'd get the promotion

or pregnant, or win the lottery.

If you really want to wish someone good luck

you might tell them you'll cross all your fingers

and your toes, too.

That is, if you live in the United States,

Canada, the UK, or Australia.

If you happen to be a resident of Viet Nam,

however, you'll view crossed fingers

as a vulgar symbol for female genitalia.

Even worse is if another person

crosses his fingers just for or at you.

Then it's an especially shocking and horrid offense.

The forearm jerk.

Think of the European forearm jerk as the

big brother of the American middle finger.

Southern European males, including those

in France, who call it the bras d'honneur,

use the forearm jerk as a crude, phallic way

to flip someone the bird.

It can also indicate sentiments such as

I'm better than you are,

Get lost, loser,

or Up yours buddy.

The cutis.

Primarily used in India and Pakistan,

once you make the gesture

you then flick your thumb our of your mouth

while crying out, cutta!

Which is screw you.

This gesture is not only an insult to you

buy to your entire family,

sort of like saying, you and your family

all kind of suck.

The thumbs up.

As far as traveling gestures go,

the thumbs up gets a thumbs down.

In the U.S, it means something like Great,

I like it, All right, or Ayyyyy.

But in other places it's offensive.

On the middle east for example,

it means Up your butt, fella.

Many Latin Americans find it offensive

as do citizens of west Africa, Greece, Russia,

Sardinia, the south of Italy, Australia,

the Philippines, and many Islamic nations.

That's a lot of thumbs up haters.

Scholars believe it originated in ancient Rome,

when crowds used the thumbs up sign to mean

a gladiator should be speared

or hid their thumbs if he should be spared.

If you simply can't stop using this sign,

know that you'll be all right in Germany

and certain areas of Japan,

where the thumbs up sign

simply indicates the number one.

Those are some of the commonly misunderstood

obscene hand gestures, but not all of them.

Before you head out on your next

international adventure, be sure to learn the rest

in our article on HowStuffWorks.com.

Also, thanks to Alkaloid Networks for allowing us

to desecrate your conference room.

You're A-OK.

Thumbs up.

- The butt.

- The butt.

(laughter)

- What is the word for an adult who doesn't

have dinosaur toys in their bedroom?

(laughter)

What was that?

- Monica knows.