Oh No She Didn’t and the One Hand Clap.
Portuguese is something that anyone serious about spending time in Brazil will need to get to grips with. In The Strange Sounds of Brazil, I described some of the difficulties I have when communicating with Brazilians. But as well as the words and phrases, the strange vowel sounds, the accents and verbal expressions, there is another aspect of communication which I have so far not covered. Non-verbal communication.
Specifically, I am talking about hand gestures. I have noticed that Brazilians like to use their hands as they speak in much the same way that southern Europeans do. But they also have some specific signs which are far more than simple gesticulation. Often the sign will be used to finish a sentence without any further words which can be confusing if you don’t know the meaning of the signal. Imagine it: “So he told her he’d see her later and she was like [weird hand gesture here]!”. I have had to say to my wife “and this [copying weird hand gesture] means what?”.
As I started paying attention to all these hand gestures, I noticed that there are quite a few. So I’m going to show you and explain. Today we’ll start with a couple of nice simple ones. See if you can guess from the video first, then read the explanation below.
Oh No She Didn’t
OK, so a nice easy one to start – this is pretty self explanatory. Perhaps you’re going to the kitchen to make a caipirinha and you ask your friend if they want one. If they’re happy with the beer they’re drinking they may just reply by waggling their index left and right. It means “No” or “Not for me”. This one is rather straightforward, but it still sticks out to me as in England we generally shake our head rather than waggle a finger like this. And it always reminds me of that “Oh no she didn’t!” thing that Americans do.
One Hand Clap
This is a good one to know. When I first started trying to catch the bus in Rio I would sometimes watch in confusion and frustration as the bus would go straight past me. And to make matters the worse the driver would taunt me by doing this one hand clap thing at me. What?! Well, I later found out that this gesture means “We’re full” (for a bus or taxi) or can just generally mean that something is full or very crowded.
OK, that’s it for this time, expect more Brazilian hand gestures soon!
"The title of your post conveys repudiation and consequence."
-Peter Griffin
Ah, Peter Griffin that wise old owl. Surely he must rank alongside Plato, Sun Tzu and Oscar Wilde for wise and insightful quotations…
When walking around the blocos last year at carnival, I would point to something I thought was cool. My friends would think I would want to buy it. It took about halfway through my time before I realized “They’ve seen this all before”.
Hand gestures can be confusing at times can’t they? My mother in law once beckoned me over, but she did her beckoning in a way that looked to me upside down (imagine turning your hand over when beckoning someone in the usual way). She was looking at me expectantly, but I was completely flummoxed! :)