Episode 19: If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands

One of the things people commonly think of when their thoughts venture to that of Italians, after thinking about the food, the family, and the language, is the talking with their hands.  However, it is not as first surmised.  We generally associate talking with your hands as nondescript waving arms and motioning of the hands, but that is not talking with your hands that Italians do.  That is flailing the appendages of the upper torso while simultaneously moving your lips and issuing out verbal sounds. 

No, talking with your hands legitimately means having a conversation using hand gestures (outside of sign language).  Usually, this gesturing accompanies talking, but I have witnessed conversation exchange between people using only hand gestures.  For example, one of the gestures I have picked up on, and now use, is the gesture for “no” which is sometimes followed by the “Go away” gesture.  And I have noticed that the times I am channeling my sister Melissa and using my hands extravagantly while speaking, Italians I walk by or who pass me focus on my hands, which then makes me stop channeling Melissa for fear I am saying something extra that I don’t realize.  Do they sometimes wave their arms about?  Yea, but I don’t know exactly what it means, but it is always the same.  So the next time you see someone trying to portray and Italian and they are flapping their arms about in a manner without purpose, they’re not being Italian.  They’re being American. :D

Along with the note on hands, touching is viewed differently and a lot more acceptable.  Every single day I see people walking holding hands or linking arms without any homosexual connotation.  Men hold hands or link arms with other men as a symbol of kinship, not as a display of sexual affection.  Some of them might be, but there is no discrepancy here about that.  Also kissing and hugging and just touching are a casual display of friendship between people, again of opposite or same sex.  Rules of eligibility in this game can vary, but I became friends enough with this woman who I worked with only twice in the mask shop to be kissed on the cheeks.  And it was kind of fun to be that affectionate and loving towards another.

Of course, it all falls under the category of safe touching.  There are plenty of touches that are not in the spectrum of friendship that happen, but are generally looked down on.

Yep.  That’s all I have to say about that.

Until Next Time!
Ciao!