"Last summer I went to Tunisia with my fellow University students to study Arabic. Being typical Italians, we often communicated with gestures and body language. For example, to say 'it's time to go' after a meal in the student cafeteria, we would use either a verbal idiom (tagliamo la corda, let's cut the rope) or a gesture that indicates the same thing: the left hand, held out vertically, represents the rope and the right hand, held flat, hits it sideways like a knife. After a few times we noticed that the Tunisian students in the cafeteria were looking at us strangely, as though they were amazed that we were declaring so openly what we were about to do. Only at the end of our stay did we discover that the gesture just described means 'let's make love'."
(reported by Italian female student)
http://www.worldenough.net/picture/English/tn/400_sortedout.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment