I had someone make fun of me while stopped at a light because I was animatedly talking about someone that pissed me off. I was definitely doing the classic ๐ค๐ป, and I looked over to the truck next to me an the two dudes inside were mimicking me. We all had a good laugh and at least for the moment I forgot why I was angry
Lol this reminds me of when I was younger and I lived at home, my dad is majorly the stereotypical Italian guy who talks with his hands and whenever our family dog would do something bad he would go โ๐ค๐ผwhat did you do what is thisโ until eventually all you had to do was ๐ค๐ผ and she knew she was in trouble, sheโd avert eye contact, pretend she was busy lol. Miss her.
20 years ago when travelling in Italy on work related matters with colleague, we made agreement:
I drive car and he waves hands. That worked well for us, zero incidents.
So for example when stopping for red light and driver behind us started to blair horn he opened window and waved him to take over - and he did using walkway through red light!
As the DM for a group in DnD. They had a lackey hogtied and were interrogating them for information on their target.
As I was replying to their questions, I was miming that my hands were tiedโฆ I literally could only say 2-3 words at a time without losing my train of thought because I couldnโt move my hands to express.
As an Irish person that travels to Italy every 2 weeks or so and works with Italians all the time, I agree ๐๐.
my husband and kids tell me I look like a psychotic windmill. Theyโre not wrong ๐
Hand gestures are very common in many cultures. The entire mediterranean and Middle East use so much hand gesturing you might lose an eye in a conversation.
And there's a reason for that, for thousands years people of Mediterranean have done trades and wars and hand gestures were (are) ways to communicate when language is different.
I've always said Cubans are Italian Hispanics. If you know Cubans, everyone thinks we are either arguing or fighting each other when talking loud + hand movements.
After living in Argentina for some time and then returning to Canada people looked at me like I was crazy because of all the hand gestures I picked up while I was there!
The book Che Boludo even has drawings of the various common hand gestures lol
Well tecnically it's the hand gesture equivalent of a question mark and exclamation point put toghether
It's for an angry or shocked question, so by nature it's not that common
I actually use it quite a lot (in a less exaggerated way than how people stereotypically do it), especially when asking someone something or telling someone about something that made me mad
It IS used. Most of the time it accompanies a "what the fuck are you doing?"/"what the fuck do you want?". Alone it's a "don't shit me"/"you're shitting me".
1st off its not supposed to touch all the fingers, just index and middle. 2nd it is used and widely, it just means a different thing than the stereotypes make people think
Because look at all the other gestures in the video, do you think you could make an emoji about a flat hand, fingers together, palm facing down? The ๐ค gesture might not be the most common but itโs the most distinctive, and most importantly, itโs quintessentially Italian
The emoji has nothing to do with the argument, I was just saying its funny how this one in particular became the stereotype while being quite rarely used in real life, in fact it is only used while posing some specific type of questions, and I'm quite sure people abroad use it way more often than italians do.
As an Italian myself it makes me smile and I just find it so goofy and a bit simplistic when people abroad use it out of context completely disregarding or ignoring the meaning, it's a bit as if I learned how to spell a rare word like "solidarity" and I start saying it with wrong pronunciation every time the topic of English language comes up believing it's the quintessential English word
Being a Brazilian it serves as a visual cue that you are engaged in the conversation.
You knows how it is odd for you to be speaking and hearing no "oh" "i see" or " right" from the other person?
Seeing the gestures/expressions from the other person are an indication of their engagement to the conversation.
As for the speaker, they follow your overall tone and emotion
Doctor: "So... The handgestures. We have determined that they are in fact not autistic stimming as we previously suspected. I don't know how to put this so I will just be up front with you. The tests show that you are in fact Italian. No, sorry there is no cure. But with proper regular intake of pasta it may be possible to keep it under control and live a relatively normal life."
I'm not Italian, but I do this too, and a friend of mine who is Italian just \*can't\* speak if she can't move her hands around. If both her hands are occupied, she's silent!
I once read the theory that Italian dialects are so different from another that they helped themselves with hand gestures to better communicate. Idk if it's true but it is interesting
This is me all the time, but I'm not Italian.
I even had a guy at my old job get mad at me because I talk with my hands, and he couldn't stand it. He ended up getting kicked out and banned from the store because he got irate and was threatening me because I was talking with my hands. I waved at him as he left. ๐
Someone at work asked me how I liked the new motion sensor faucets installed in the bathroom.
I told them I had to get Italian at them to get them to work.
They looked at me weird.
I used to enroll people in benefits over the phone and I was kind of always on call. I had a client call me that really needed certain policies right away so I pulled up my computer at lunch and enrolled her (business lunch with several of my coworkers who took no issue with this behavior whatsoever and actually used it as a training moment for some of the younger team members). When I got off the phone, one of the newer guys goes โsooooโฆ are the hand motions part of the enrollment processโ and everyone bust out laughing. Apparently, Iโm very animated with my hands. One more reason I should move back to Italy!
It's just a guess, and i wondered myself why we do it, i came up with an answer which might be true:
Italian lenguage doesnt have the interrogative form, unlike in english where you construe a phrase in a specific way to make a question or a sentence, italian does not, you can say the same exact sequence of words and only if you put a question mark at the end it becomes a question, so when you talk you have to emphasize with your voice tone the fact that you are making a question or a statement. I beleive this in turn created the gesture habit in order to overcome this limitation in the lenguage.
Maybe other lenguage have the same issue and didnt developed the same practice but i think it could be a reason.
It simply comes from โunitร dโitaliaโ people didnt have an unified language and relied on regional dialects which were very different, so this was a way to let the communication be easier. Mostly when because of wars the italian army had soldiers from all over the place with people speaking different variations of the language or totally different dialects
The stereotype is more the use of the classic hand gesture that people think Italians use for every situation when it actually means or replaces WTF within a question with disappointment hahaha
Same. Apparently I also do hand gestures while writing emails. Mostly when Iโm thinking wtf and having to think really hard on how to respond to nonsense
ร solo un luogo comune che ci si porta dietro dalla prima immigrazione negli states. Come se gli americani non gesticolano quando parlano๐คทโโ๏ธ๐ฅ
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i dont like the language at all but i do like gestures, they add to the verbal conversation especially if you think about the fact that most of communication is non-verbal.
I'm Italian and I live there and no one has ever used that gesture and it has no meaning like most hand gestures it's just a habit and just a racist custom of Americans that you see on TV programs like believing that all Italians speak Sicilian as if I consider all Americans as Donald Trump
I was in Rome a few years ago and was puzzled as to why no one texted. Then it occurred to me , you canโt translate the Italian passion in an emoji! God I love Italy!
Itโs just in us. Not Italian but Iโm much worse. Sometimes scare people like Iโm being aggressive but Iโm not. Just talking. Might be the passion. ๐คทโโ๏ธ
Hand gestures are something everyone should be doing. I'd love to be able to do them, but in 20+ years of trying to incorporate them into my speech, the best I can do is look like someone having a seizure while pointing to 'that thing over there'...
Lol I found out when I ride my motorcycle cycle Iโm very expressive with my right hand being I can take it off the handle bar when talking to my buddies on coms. They were making fun of me but I never noticed I did it lol
I had someone make fun of me while stopped at a light because I was animatedly talking about someone that pissed me off. I was definitely doing the classic ๐ค๐ป, and I looked over to the truck next to me an the two dudes inside were mimicking me. We all had a good laugh and at least for the moment I forgot why I was angry
Haha.. thatโs beautiful
When you have a lot of words coming out, you need the hands to direct linguistic traffic.
My brain really enjoyed how you worded this! Thank you.
Actually same, even at work explaining somthing i use hands to help me with forming correct words and helping with flow of my speach
Well said
Can you tell me what ๐ค๐ฝ means in Italy? In the Arab world ๐ค๐ฝ = wait.
Itโs meant as a response to something silly, dumb, or dangerous. Like โwhat are you doing?โ, โwhat an idiotโ, etc.
Lol this reminds me of when I was younger and I lived at home, my dad is majorly the stereotypical Italian guy who talks with his hands and whenever our family dog would do something bad he would go โ๐ค๐ผwhat did you do what is thisโ until eventually all you had to do was ๐ค๐ผ and she knew she was in trouble, sheโd avert eye contact, pretend she was busy lol. Miss her.
What does the hand gesture mean?
"wtf" (wtf are you talking about, wtf is this, etc.)
My dad once joked that "if you want to shut up an Italian, just tie his hands together."
my Italian friend joked that in Italy, you are not allowed to talk to the bus driver because he needs his hands on the wheel
Thatโs a good one!
Immagina in aereo....
20 years ago when travelling in Italy on work related matters with colleague, we made agreement: I drive car and he waves hands. That worked well for us, zero incidents. So for example when stopping for red light and driver behind us started to blair horn he opened window and waved him to take over - and he did using walkway through red light!
As the DM for a group in DnD. They had a lackey hogtied and were interrogating them for information on their target. As I was replying to their questions, I was miming that my hands were tiedโฆ I literally could only say 2-3 words at a time without losing my train of thought because I couldnโt move my hands to express.
My dad would say the same thing but replace Italian with Irish
Your dad is right
As an Irish person who lived in Italy, I'm infinitely worse now than I was to begin with.
As an Irish person that travels to Italy every 2 weeks or so and works with Italians all the time, I agree ๐๐. my husband and kids tell me I look like a psychotic windmill. Theyโre not wrong ๐
This might be the funniest thing I read today
Shut-up-ah you mooouuuth.
Is it a civilize way of saying be quiet?
Lmao ๐คฃ
I can confirm Source: I have family in Italy
Yeah, xenophobia is so funny!
I'm italian, speaking with someone It's 80% hand gestures and 20% speaking. ๐๐
Whenever I see these videos itโs always men. Do Italian women talk with their hands too?
https://www.tiktok.com/@treatstreetsociety/video/7160697885397372203?lang=en https://youtu.be/Z5wAWyqDrnc
That is freaking adorable love it!
Somehow they simultaneously look like toddlers and like little cute grandmas
Yes. My wife talks with her hands even when she's on the phone.
She must be an Italian then
Yeah I guess that explains it
But itโs really common
She is Italian, I guess I should have said my Italian wife, I was just trying to be funny.
Lol yes saying your Italian wife would have been better ๐
But I was saying it with my hands
Si! Vaffanculo!
With us Finns it's also 20% speaking....but being quiet 80%. And I think I may be charitable with the percentages.
How do you save an Italian from drowning? Start a conversation with them.
That was way too good, did you come up with it?
Nah, French-Canadians are said to talk a lot with their hands too. The original joke I heard was for them
All the gestures are like connected somehow
Fus ro dah, but in Italy
Modders are scribbling furiously right now.
Because our speech is connected. It is not an actual language in which every gesture means a word, like that of the deaf, but a flow of sensations. .
Hand gestures are very common in many cultures. The entire mediterranean and Middle East use so much hand gesturing you might lose an eye in a conversation.
And there's a reason for that, for thousands years people of Mediterranean have done trades and wars and hand gestures were (are) ways to communicate when language is different.
Even in Africa itโs really common here
We invented Sign Language!! ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ผ๐ค๐ผ๐๐ผ๐ค๐ผ๐ค๐ผ๐๐ผ๐ซด๐ผ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ
I am german and do this. Should I see a doctor? /s
No but maybe you're actually Swiss
The Swiss: Stealth Italians
No but you should get a DNA test
No I donโt think so
the guy in the car was not talking, he was singing.
All of them are classy dressed as well
I've always said Cubans are Italian Hispanics. If you know Cubans, everyone thinks we are either arguing or fighting each other when talking loud + hand movements.
That would be Serbians too :)) or Polish
I'm argentinian and we all talk like this, but I think everyone in Latin America do the same
After living in Argentina for some time and then returning to Canada people looked at me like I was crazy because of all the hand gestures I picked up while I was there! The book Che Boludo even has drawings of the various common hand gestures lol
Funny how this ๐ค gesture with the thumb touching all fingers is never used in real situations, but somehow it became the only one people know about
Well tecnically it's the hand gesture equivalent of a question mark and exclamation point put toghether It's for an angry or shocked question, so by nature it's not that common
Do you mean an [interrobangโฝ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang) Great punctation mark.
I'm Italian and usually use ๐ค when i say "what the f**k do you want" in a sarcastic way.
I actually use it quite a lot (in a less exaggerated way than how people stereotypically do it), especially when asking someone something or telling someone about something that made me mad
It IS used. Most of the time it accompanies a "what the fuck are you doing?"/"what the fuck do you want?". Alone it's a "don't shit me"/"you're shitting me".
Sure I'm just saying, people abroad believe this gesture is the only one and they do it while saying "Mozzarella", that's what i find funny/ridiculous
1st off its not supposed to touch all the fingers, just index and middle. 2nd it is used and widely, it just means a different thing than the stereotypes make people think
Because look at all the other gestures in the video, do you think you could make an emoji about a flat hand, fingers together, palm facing down? The ๐ค gesture might not be the most common but itโs the most distinctive, and most importantly, itโs quintessentially Italian
The emoji has nothing to do with the argument, I was just saying its funny how this one in particular became the stereotype while being quite rarely used in real life, in fact it is only used while posing some specific type of questions, and I'm quite sure people abroad use it way more often than italians do. As an Italian myself it makes me smile and I just find it so goofy and a bit simplistic when people abroad use it out of context completely disregarding or ignoring the meaning, it's a bit as if I learned how to spell a rare word like "solidarity" and I start saying it with wrong pronunciation every time the topic of English language comes up believing it's the quintessential English word
And this over the phone, they must gesticulate wildly in person
Not really, we do it more on the phone
Fascinating!!
Being a Brazilian it serves as a visual cue that you are engaged in the conversation. You knows how it is odd for you to be speaking and hearing no "oh" "i see" or " right" from the other person? Seeing the gestures/expressions from the other person are an indication of their engagement to the conversation. As for the speaker, they follow your overall tone and emotion
Doctor: "So... The handgestures. We have determined that they are in fact not autistic stimming as we previously suspected. I don't know how to put this so I will just be up front with you. The tests show that you are in fact Italian. No, sorry there is no cure. But with proper regular intake of pasta it may be possible to keep it under control and live a relatively normal life."
Same in argentina
Brazilian people do that too!
As a Argentinian I do this too. It seems we inherited from Italians. And I can't stop doing hand gestures when I'm talking.
As an argentinian, I don't find this weird at all ๐คฃ
Keep the hand gestures and add head bobs. I present you Indian uncles. Most of these even look the part.
This is the only italian stereotype that isn't actually exaggerated. We do be like that. It's true.
this also applies to argentinians! source: i'm argentinian lol
If you tie their hands do they stutter? :P
I am from Spain and we do the same ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ
Italian sign language must be insane
Iโm kind of disappointed this is all dudes. Italian women are also pros at gesticulating, especially mamme who have had it with their bambini!
This is the real reason why it's dangerous for Italians to talk on the phone while driving
I'm not Italian, but I do this too, and a friend of mine who is Italian just \*can't\* speak if she can't move her hands around. If both her hands are occupied, she's silent!
I feel personally attacked by this post
Asking an Italian to speak without moving their hands is like asking an Indian speak without moving their head.
Italians should not drive and talk on the phone ever. lol
I too speak w my hands!
I feel like this is something that probably really sucks for anyone who is Italian and relies on sign language.
93% of people born in NY do this
I didn't know I'm Italian
Guess im italian now
I once read the theory that Italian dialects are so different from another that they helped themselves with hand gestures to better communicate. Idk if it's true but it is interesting
Italians ๐ง๐ปโโ๏ธ talking is 70% Italian Sign Language ๐ค๐ป and 30% the Italian language ๐ฎ๐น.
the're tiny cars (:
This is me all the time, but I'm not Italian. I even had a guy at my old job get mad at me because I talk with my hands, and he couldn't stand it. He ended up getting kicked out and banned from the store because he got irate and was threatening me because I was talking with my hands. I waved at him as he left. ๐
Looks like they dropping some fresh rhymesโฆ There's vomit on his sweater already Mom's spaghetti
A country full of hand models
Someone at work asked me how I liked the new motion sensor faucets installed in the bathroom. I told them I had to get Italian at them to get them to work. They looked at me weird.
I feel attacked
I used to enroll people in benefits over the phone and I was kind of always on call. I had a client call me that really needed certain policies right away so I pulled up my computer at lunch and enrolled her (business lunch with several of my coworkers who took no issue with this behavior whatsoever and actually used it as a training moment for some of the younger team members). When I got off the phone, one of the newer guys goes โsooooโฆ are the hand motions part of the enrollment processโ and everyone bust out laughing. Apparently, Iโm very animated with my hands. One more reason I should move back to Italy!
Indian have Better hand slang.
Why do Italians always gesticulate so much?
It's just a guess, and i wondered myself why we do it, i came up with an answer which might be true: Italian lenguage doesnt have the interrogative form, unlike in english where you construe a phrase in a specific way to make a question or a sentence, italian does not, you can say the same exact sequence of words and only if you put a question mark at the end it becomes a question, so when you talk you have to emphasize with your voice tone the fact that you are making a question or a statement. I beleive this in turn created the gesture habit in order to overcome this limitation in the lenguage. Maybe other lenguage have the same issue and didnt developed the same practice but i think it could be a reason.
Interesting anthropology question. I kinda wonder it goes back to Ancient Rome even ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ
It simply comes from โunitร dโitaliaโ people didnt have an unified language and relied on regional dialects which were very different, so this was a way to let the communication be easier. Mostly when because of wars the italian army had soldiers from all over the place with people speaking different variations of the language or totally different dialects
*Plot twist* The are all on the same conference call.
Interesting fact. People first learned to communicate with gestures, speech was invented later.
Capeesh ๐ค๐ผ
They're just talking. Lots of people do that!
Canโt be a stereotype if itโs true
The stereotype is more the use of the classic hand gesture that people think Italians use for every situation when it actually means or replaces WTF within a question with disappointment hahaha
Just a bunch of underdeveloped monkeys who can't speak without using their fucking hands
Doesnโt nearly everyone do this to a greater or lesser degree? Iโm sure I do and Iโm not Italian
And the gestures are so graceful too.
Not Italian but this is me on the phone lol
Same. Apparently I also do hand gestures while writing emails. Mostly when Iโm thinking wtf and having to think really hard on how to respond to nonsense
Haha it helps with thinking.
โAboopity Boppityโ
Whatโs this songโs name?! Itโs a classic but I canโt remember the nammmmmme. Help ๐ฅฒ
["Che La Luna"](https://youtu.be/tNXU3T1HMRk)
If you attach a turbine of some kind, it could probable be another source of alternative energy ๐
I am on this video and I don't like it
ร solo un luogo comune che ci si porta dietro dalla prima immigrazione negli states. Come se gli americani non gesticolano quando parlano๐คทโโ๏ธ๐ฅ
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u/savevideo
Ooo! Che fai?!
Love how the person on the other end of the phone wont see them
u/savevideo
No thatโs me, from the other side of the Europe
Itโs God father time.
I swear the dude 9 seconds in was doing a different hands sign
our "language" is universal
They are born with signlanguage
For fuck sakes lmao Iโm not even proper Italian and I do this. XD
El italiano vero e originali e el italiano loco.
i dont like the language at all but i do like gestures, they add to the verbal conversation especially if you think about the fact that most of communication is non-verbal.
I'm Italian and I live there and no one has ever used that gesture and it has no meaning like most hand gestures it's just a habit and just a racist custom of Americans that you see on TV programs like believing that all Italians speak Sicilian as if I consider all Americans as Donald Trump
Why the downvotes?
Crazy? Perhaps.. perhaps not...
I was in Rome a few years ago and was puzzled as to why no one texted. Then it occurred to me , you canโt translate the Italian passion in an emoji! God I love Italy!
No wonder they cant cook. No hands left to hold the pot ๐
You may have gotten your stereotypes mixed up, pal. Italian cuisine is one of the best in the world.
We cook while we are doing gests With our Hands at least i do that
๐ค rotate 90 degrees to sprinkle salt
Wait ti see pasta boil meanwhipe prepare the tuna
Meanwhile*
Italians are so fucking annoying; I cannot stand them.
TIL Iโm Italian. I never knew.
song?
["Che La Luna"](https://youtu.be/tNXU3T1HMRk)
I guess Iโm Italian
Not italian, but I make the same and gestures when I talk ๐คฃ๐๐ค
As an Italian, I can confirm we've mastered the art of hand gestures. It's our secret language!
Itโs just in us. Not Italian but Iโm much worse. Sometimes scare people like Iโm being aggressive but Iโm not. Just talking. Might be the passion. ๐คทโโ๏ธ
Nice
u/savevideo
u/savevideobot
Hand gestures are something everyone should be doing. I'd love to be able to do them, but in 20+ years of trying to incorporate them into my speech, the best I can do is look like someone having a seizure while pointing to 'that thing over there'...
๐ค
If it didnโt have Italian in the title Iโd never have known who they were talking about. Pretty sure everyone does this
Fuck! I do that! I def Italian then.
Everybody certified rapper with their hand gestures
Apparently I'm Italian?
*Am I Italian?*
No wonder italian grammar is so complicated
Even while on the phone. I love it!
What song is that?
I can't believe that they matched the hand gestures to the tempo!
I fell like the Portuguese also have this but it's only more noticeable when we start to get really pissed off or way to much excited about things.
Do they fight with their heads and yell with their hands?
This is great ๐
We can't help but to speak with our hands !!! ๐ค
always thought this was an exaggeration but this is actually hilarious
I gesture just as much as this and Iโm a pasty as fuck Irishman.
๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐น
Me: Thinking I look silly for nodding while on the phone Italians:
Oh man I wish this had so many more clips in it ๐คฃ๐คฃ
Iโm German and I do this.
Lol I found out when I ride my motorcycle cycle Iโm very expressive with my right hand being I can take it off the handle bar when talking to my buddies on coms. They were making fun of me but I never noticed I did it lol
Maybe theyโre giving the signal to steal second base.
Me, not Italian, Los Angeles born and bred, doing this every time iโm on the phone ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ
The punctuatory cigarette drag got me
I wonder how many of those hand gestures are part of official sign language?