Communicating with my Russian Friend.

An experience relating to nonverbal communication and hand gestures led to some interesting conversation one evening. I was invited over to a friend’s house for some evening entertainment, drinks, movies, hanging out chatting. The host of the party was a relatively new addition to my circle of friends, but I was told by one of my best friends that she was super friendly. Unbeknownst to me, the host of the party grew up in Russia until she was a teenager, and then she and her family moved to the United States. So when my best friend and I arrived, we were offered some drinks to which I gave the “thumbs-up” hand gesture. As I was involved in a side conversation I didn’t really notice that the host gave me a quite mean look at the time. The host was uncharacteristically rude and distant towards me for the remainder of the evening so much so that our mutual friend even asked what I might have did. It was at that time that she explained her interpretation of the hand gesture at the beginning of the evening which led much hilarity amongst our friends. We ended the evening talking about the different hand gestures that our two different cultures used to prevent any further miscommunications. I haven’t moved around a lot in this country, but I have travelled on occasion. In my experience, I haven’t had any hand gestures be misinterpreted as differently as the experience with my Russian friend. I think in a country as big as ours, we are often exposed to enough diversity that we tolerate different nonverbal signals.