International gestures
Upon entering the lab, I gave an enthusiastic “thumbs up” to a classmate of mine, Maria. She’s from Kyrgyzstan. Then, I got to thinking… isn’t that “the foulest of gesticular insults” in some countries? Hmm.
So I looked it up.
If you find yourself in these places in the world:
- Parts of West Africa, South America, and Sardinia
- Bangladesh
- Iran
- Iraq
- Thailand
… you’ll want to go ahead and not use the thumbs up. Elsewhere (including Russia!) you should be ok.