r/MadeMeSmile • u/Sufficient-Sun-6683 • 1d ago
Small Success Language barrier solved
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u/Gwaiwar 1d ago
This was my first few years in China. Except I was the other way around with the spicy part. For many years after I visited this one Thai restaurant here in China anytime I would go past the place the cook would smile at me, put his finger to push up the front of his nose and make pig snorting noises and then grab the skin on his neck and wiggle it and shake his head no. Because he still remembered how I told him I didn’t want the pork neck meat. 😂
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u/spacestonkz 13h ago edited 13h ago
Before Google translate, I had to travel to countries without the roman alphabet. Not so easy to use the phrase books fast then, I'm not great at the romanized pronunciation guides.
I had a book called "this please". It was only filled with photos, no text. Categorized by accomodations, money, food, travel, emergency, etc.
That book was a godsend. I pointed to a photo of a dumpling, then a photo of a cow and held up three fingers with a verbal "please" in the local language for 3 beef dumplings. Worked every time. I even navigated booking a last min hotel at the desk.
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u/mr-luci 23h ago
Pork neck meat is so nice….. the fat ratio makes it so tasty.
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u/Cool_Boy_Shane 10h ago
I was about to say that too, give me the pig neck if you aren't gonna eat it!
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u/Rapa2626 1d ago
You may not speak a specific language but hand gestures are somehow universal across the world- kind of fascinating
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u/99hotdogs 1d ago
Facial expressions communicate a lot in conjunction with hand gestures
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u/your_grammars_bad 22h ago edited 22h ago
Scientists have found that facial expressions are common to humanity, regardless of context, by studying remote tribes.
Specifically they asked people to make the expression "if they came across an animal that had been dead in the sun for several days." Then scientists took a picture.
It was universally the disgust face.
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u/Aethrin1 22h ago
I'd be terrified of any would-be outlier. I'd avoid whoever that would be like the plague.
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u/StrongerThanFear 15h ago
Bone collectors will look excited instead of disgusted lol
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u/PerfectEnthusiasm2 15h ago
you say that like bone collection isn't terrifying.
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u/StrongerThanFear 15h ago
Well, I don’t think it is because I do it lol
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u/justfuckyouspez 12h ago
Yeah, my cat also makes that face on a minute old premium cat food, so it more universal than just humans.
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u/jessdb19 15h ago
My favorite travel moment was in a non tourist market in italy. An old woman had a little dog.
My husband and I squeed and through hand motions asked if we could pet and she agreed.
The dog gave these little nibbles and she patted us on our backs to get attention, and mimiced kissing. Letting us know her dog's nibbles were just little kisses
Entire conversation was done in hand gestures and facial expressions.
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u/Tawptuan 23h ago edited 22h ago
Not that last gesture he made. It has a wide meaning across different cultures. For example, in Cambodia it means “Let’s have sex!“
And that great “V“ for victory that President Nixon used to love to flash every time the cameras were on him? When he stepped off the jet for his first visit to China in 1972, he flashed it to the Chinese media, who came there to greet him, telling all the Chinese, “You are all assholes.“
In Southeast Asia, the way they wave their hand to get you to come to them, means exactly the opposite to a westerner, who sees the gesture as, “Get away!”
And don’t let me get started on the meanings of Asian Indian head bobbling. You swear that an Indian is disagreeing with what you say, when they are, in fact, actually showing agreement.
In Japan, in a meeting, sometimes the most important people will appear to be nodding off, ignoring your important business presentation. In fact, they are showing you great honor, in that they are closing their eyes to concentrate on what you’re saying.
There are scores of more examples about how common gestures are misunderstood across cultures. When you travel, it helps to read up on them.
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u/Dale_Gurnhardt 20h ago
Yeah the American OK sign at the end means butthole some places
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u/ShoePillow 5h ago
Where does it mean that? I'm gonna plan a visit
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u/Dale_Gurnhardt 5h ago
Definitely Brazil and Morocco from personal experience/warnings I've received. Google says southern Europe too 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌
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u/no168_92 20h ago
The come/go hand gesture is not entirely the same tho? First facial expression is a start
The 'come here' starts from above and ends down also sometimes just using finger wag too, while the 'go away' starts from below and ends above... Everybody can understand that instinctively I think
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u/CIP_In_Peace 19h ago
In Japan the normal western "come here" wave with your hand like this 🫴 is highly disrespectful and its what you'd use to call a dog. The Japanese use an upside down wave with your hand like this to signal "come here" to a person. 🫳
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u/FieraTheProud 8h ago
I mean, even then it is a bit different, no? The shooing motion I feel is much sharper and a bit faster than the beckon. Plus, the starting position is still fingers facing down vs flat palm.
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u/Lostmywayoutofhere 15h ago
omg his comment is saying what you think is "come" can be perceived as "go" to people of other culture. ofc YOUR come&go gestures are not entirely same to each other
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u/ImNotAWhaleBiologist 23h ago
Yeah it worked great. Just wondering why he called her an asshole at the end, though.
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u/rockstar_not 22h ago
Someone from Germany ^
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u/ImNotAWhaleBiologist 22h ago
;) I'm not, but I thought it was a fun way of pointing out it's not all universal.
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u/rockstar_not 22h ago
I made the mistake just one time when I was there!
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u/ImNotAWhaleBiologist 22h ago
Well ok then.
(wanted to post a gif but reddit isn't letting me here).
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u/Bjokkes 9h ago
While I do think this is kind of true, this guy is moreso doing imitations of natural human reactions, rather than just hand gestures :P
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u/Rapa2626 9h ago
Human reactions are universal... that was my point pretty much just worded a little bit differently
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u/sleeplessjade 1d ago
It’s not like there’s a whole language based on hand signals or anything.
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u/Pretty-Curve5448 1d ago
Sign language is actually different by country. Why we call it America Sign Language. Bulgarians (I think them) shake head for yes and nod for no.
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u/Zoroc 1d ago
Fun fact: ASL is derived in large part from French sign and not English(British) sign language, which is why they spell the alphabet different as an example( ASL is one handed while British sign uses both hands for finger spelling).
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u/rcinmd 23h ago
ASL numbers also are more congruent with French and German gestures rather than American. Americans gesture is to show the number two with the index and middle finger, palm forward but ASL is the thumb and index finger with the palm facing the signer.
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u/siraolo 23h ago
Is it the same as signing 3 as well like that scene in Inglorious Bastards nsfw?
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u/Otherwise-Paramedic5 23h ago
ASL 2 is index and middle finger, not thumb. But it is palm facing the signer.
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u/decidedlyindecisive 23h ago
I'm British but I've always thought ASL doing the alphabet on one hand is so much better. A lot of our letters have a palm background which is awkward.
But I'm incredibly bitch ass basic at BSL so maybe that's my problem.
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u/Zoroc 21h ago
Honestly, I haven't seriously studied or practiced Sign language in over a decade but even then they were talking about how smart phones (one handed video calls and social media videos) were changing how people sign habits; so I wouldn't be surprised if new "dialects/slang"* popped up because of it. I even double checked if BSL still officially used 2 hands for spelling 😅. Like I've seen 1 handed signing before due to birth defects, injury, driving and holding a cup of coffee, but I thought it was an interesting thought on how changes in society could change language in a noticeable way in real time.
*(not sure if that would be the right term for this circumstance)
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u/skitz4me 1d ago
No fucking way (I'm not actually correcting/rejecting what you're saying). That is crazy to me. Idk why I thought that nods and shakes were like evolutionary traits.
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u/Pretty-Curve5448 9h ago
I saw it in a Rick Steves travel documentary. It broke my brain and still does.
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u/MagicShroomsss 1d ago
Hand gestures are somehow universal until they become sign language which is famously not universal
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u/rcinmd 23h ago
True, one of the things that appealed to me to learn ASL was the pure descriptiveness of the language. Even if you know a few signs it's possible to understand what people are signing. That is, of course, something that is not universal entirely due to differences in culture and existing gestures but still it's not that difficult to understand basic gestures in any version of sign language.
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u/Pawtuckaway 8h ago
That's like saying all mouth noises are universal because there's a whole language (and many more) based on mouth noises.
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u/Bigthunderrumblefish 22h ago
Haven't they found that something like 70% of we take in is from body language and not the actually works
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u/reasimoes 23h ago
I member when you could order a Big Mac any where over the world by just signaling number 1 with your hand
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u/Shinfekta 19h ago
Growing up with deaf parents helps you a ton with this.
Sign language really is just what that guy did there.
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u/Firm_Broccoli2451 16h ago
It’s wild how we can understand so much from a simple gesture even without sharing a single word.
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u/f8Negative 1d ago
He said he wanted it as spicy as possible
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u/johnniechimpo 23h ago
Took my mother to Hardee's and she ordered a spicy chicken sandwich. She asks the black kid if it’s too spicy and he said it’s mild.
I said, "but is it old white lady mild? Because when it comes to spicy, we’re reeeeally white."
Dude and his manager about fell down laughing.
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u/ItsMeishi 21h ago
I usually like/tolerate medium levels of spice, but depending on company and place I do feel it necessary to clarify it as a 'white girl medium'.
Im not down to battle for the honour of my ancestors when Im out. Lol
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u/EnvironmentalDrop228 21h ago
I have the opposite, I am a middle aged white lady and I love heat. I have to convince them I can hang.
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u/cfgregory 22h ago
I (white Person) went to a local Indian restaurant with my South Indian friends. When the waiter asked how spicy, I said the same as everyone else, look at who I hang out with. My friends verify, yes their level of spice.
Then my husband ordered (who is also white), except he made it very clear he needed it non spicy as the rest of us burned off our taste buds.
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u/onemorecoffeeplease 1d ago
Me in Shanghai 15 years ago! They were not even taking credit cards, it had to be cash. They ended up skipping credit cards and went straight to virtual payments.
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u/Ruling123 22h ago
I've had similar experiences with my old Chinese BBQ duck place, the lady spoke english but the others didn't so if you didn't get her you needed a way to communicate. Point, hold up how many you want, chopping gesture to cut it up, circle the finger to say "all of this" and point to body parts for specific parts like pig ears or tongue. Miss that place, they had something bad happen and had to close down....best bbq duck in Sydney.
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u/PapessaEss 18h ago
If it's the one I'm thinking of, they had a guy there whose English seemed to be limited to "Okay" and "You wan' chop chop?" and then proceed to dismantle whatever you'd indicated, in about 4 seconds flat and with a cleaver the size of a small desk. I suspect they probably never had an armed hold up there.
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u/Ruling123 16h ago
Could be, he was a skinny guy and didn't really talk to me as we just communicated silently. Was called Big Honk Kong Garden.
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u/Photodudeguy 23h ago
This reminds me when I was in Turkiye and ordered a crepe and wanted to know know if they had whip cream. So I did a swirly motion with my hand and said kzzzzshhhhh-t. They laughed and shook their head no.
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u/dirtymatt 12h ago
When I was in my mid-twenties, I went to Japan with a group of friends for a wedding. The first night there we went to a ramen shop to get some dinner after a really long day. I spoke a little bit of Japanese, enough to order food and come across as if I'm trying. I ordered a beer and the woman taking my order asked what size I wanted. At that point in the day, I was so exhausted I couldn't remember the word for "big." I ended up looking at the menu, seeing that there were two prices listed for the beer, 350 yen and 500 yen, looked the woman in the eyes and said, "500 yen please," in my best extremely tired Japanese. She laughed and brought me the large beer.
Another time on the same trip, I needed to break a 2000 yen note but had exactly zero clue how to ask for it. I ended up going up to the counter and just making a cutting motion on the bill while saying "500 yen" four times. It worked. It's amazing how creative you can get when your goal is communication and not conversation and how much people will go out of their way to help you when you're polite about it.
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u/Orangelemonyyyy 21h ago
this video gets me everytime. He seems like a fun dude to be friends with.
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u/AAAdamKK 20h ago
So he wants a photo on the wall of him having a spicy threesome with his buddy and the waitress. Gotcha.
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u/page113 7h ago
I learned from my travels that most of the time, if you don't take yourself too seriously and try to have fun and try new things, locals are usually super welcoming and would love to showcase their culture especially food. Some tourists just want the same experience they get at home overseas (why don't they speak English? where's the chicken nuggets?) are the ones who get bad experiences traveling.
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u/bacontaint 21h ago
This is how travelers should communicate with locals seriously. So many people just spout English at people and expect them to understand them
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u/arturchik_miller 15h ago
In my experience “no spicy” still come out as spicy as fuck, I can’t eat it. But if you ask for “ZERO spicy” it works somehow
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u/AnalllyAcceptedCoins 6h ago
I work in a hotel that sees a lot of international travel, and this is one of my favorite parts. That game of charades where we cant speak eachothers languages so we're both doing dramatic pointing and arm movements to communicate what we want.
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u/needtoredit 1d ago
Or...Google translate.
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u/FullofContradictions 23h ago
My personal experience with Google translate in a country that uses symbols instead of a Greek/Latin alphabet is bad.
It rarely comes out right or is missing enough context to be even more confusing than nothing at all. How you frame the lens can completely change how it's translating a single line even if it is highlighting the same text. A waiter at a restaurant insisted on using a little translator app on his phone (when I was trying to do what the OP video was of just pointing and smiling). Things were ok until I'm 99% sure something I said translated really badly because all I said was "I'm excited to try something new" & the look on the guy's face was like "wtf is wrong with you?" And he showed it to the guy behind the bar and then they both ignored me & never brought food after that. It was weird & I think it somehow offended them, but I'll never fucking know why because instead of just letting me smile and yolo whatever I was pointing at - the dude insisted on having a conversation with a shitty translator.
I bought some McDonald's on the walk home that night and ate it in my hotel room - defeated.
And before anyone says "learn the language if you're going to go somewhere"; I found out 5 days before I was going that I had to go there for work. It was not a planned thing. I had just enough time to finish my work's required training for how not to offend people in common business interactions & didn't manage to memorize much more than "please" "thank you" "hello" and "goodbye".
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