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Is it low-class to gesticulate while speaking?

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I use my hands all the time. Italian-tendency?


Was really funny/confusing when I was dating a sign language interpreter because I always felt like I was 'accidentally' telling her I wanted to drink her bathwater or something.


Got laid but she stopped returning my texts :(
 
If you don't use your hands while talking, especially when telling a story, you probably don't know how to socialize, at least effectively.
 
Gesticulation is a natural part of communication. They (gestures) are processed in the same area of the brain responsible for processing human speech and sign language. There's a bunch of literature in linguistics and neurology that talks at length about their importance in the evolution of modern human language, and their modern day importance in getting across meaning. You can try to paint this as "people are too dumb to just use words" but there is no evidence that gesticulation is related to a lack of vocabulary or intelligence.

I never called anyone dumb man.
All I was saying is that I dislike the act.
 
I never called anyone dumb man.
All I was saying is that I dislike the act.

Do you dedicate your communications soley to online forums? How can you have an active dislike for natural communication? Have you ever been able to make it through an interview or speech without people thinking you were a sociopath?
 
ANOTHER Nintendo is doomed thread on GAF ? =P

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i've never heard that

i gesticulate a lot while talking. to an almost comical degree. like i'm fucking conducting my words or something.
 
I don't as I have no fucking clue where my hands should be when talking. Should I be moving around like an idiot or stand by my side?
 
I think gesture while talking is ok if you do it with friends, even though i hate it, but if it's in a professional context, it would definitely bother me because it looks ugly as shit and tells a lot about the person...
Fuck that, looks dope, gesticulate your management meetings "how are we on *finger on table* today's progress charts?"
 
Why limit your communication to a single device? You have the tools, use them.

I don't think it is a lower form at all. Body language says far more than words.
 
Gesticulation is a key part of rhetoric so even if someone thinks it's low-class to do it (it isn't) it certainly isn't smart to not gesticulate.
 
The one place where I would actively try to NOT use my hands is at a funeral.

Otherwise it's a 5 foot perimeter around me when I'm in front of a crowd.
 
I've learned to tone down using hand motions as I talk in the workplace, but for family gatherings no one understands you unless big hand motions are used. When I first attempted to keep my hands at my sides while talking, I felt almost incapable of forming a sentence. It was kind of scary, actually, how reliant on hand motions I tend to be.

I will say that without hand motions, I doubt I'd be able to survive foreign travel. Sometimes a quick hand gesture made it so much easier to converse.
 
Kinesics are an incredibly important part of communication. Trying to have a conversation without any kind of gestures would be pretty awkward.
 
Working in retail, I find my amount of gesticulation depends more on the person I'm talking to, not myself.

I mostly use hand motions to engage people and help them understand concepts. If they grasp concepts well, I don't have to show them, instead I only have to talk and gesture when necessary.
 
What I've gathered from reading Jane Austen is that it was thought to be lower-class or in bad taste to inflict your emotions on other people, even those close to you. Not something polite people did. Gesturing could be part of that, too forceful to be polite.
 
American culture, if you don't do it you are considered cold/unfriendly/sociopath who wants to murder everyone. If you do use hand gestures you are considered aggresive and arogant or you might just be Teddy Roosevelt.
 
When I was in the Army they drilled this into us during basic and regular duty. Never knew it was a thing outside of there, not sure if it's still being taught, it's been 20 years. I still kind of judge hand talkers though.

I think the main reason they do it so you can explain yourself clearly over radio transmissions and such. And also that using your hands are for the uneducated.
 
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