Cultural Cafè reveals interesting international gestures

Twenty people came to the Student Center on Thursday, Feb. 18, to learn gestures from around the world. This installment of the Cultural Cafè had students and faculty counting in Chinese, celebrating victory and peace in the United States and swearing in Hong Kong.

The International Club sponsors these once a month events on Thursdays, always striving to expose students to the experiences of different cultures.

International Club member Jace Zhu taught the audience to count on their fingers in Chinese.

Numbers one, two, four and five are the same in both China and the United States ­– but that is where similarities end. Three in Chinese hand counting is the American "o.k." and that is also another meaning it has.  

What Americans think of as the Hawaiian "hang loose" sign is a Chinese six, and seven looks like the American gesture for money with all fingers together, touching the thumb, and it also means money in China.

Fingers held in a gun shape mean eight, gun or may stand as a check mark in China, whereas in America it only means gun. Chinese nine is a hooked forefinger. Our ten is embodied in China as two forefingers crossed in an X.

"It was interesting to learn hellos, goodbyes, blessings and (expletives)," said Alan Young, 22, Chehalis.