Dealing with nodding or shaking of head confusion

8/21/2014 4:03:29 PM

I believe that “thumb up” and “thumb down” works in most of the world. At least with people that have an incentive to understand you as you are spending money.

8/21/2014 2:03:55 PM

Wikipedia lists only a few countries where nodding and shaking are reversed: Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania. As a Bulgarian, I can tell you it can be quite confusing for foreigners: I’ve been living abroad for the last seven years or so, and in the beginning I caught a few puzzled looks when nodding or shaking: my mouth says one thing, but my head apparently another. It didn’t take me long to switch to the “correct” way, but when I go back home, I’m sometimes perplexed myself when seeing somebody say one thing and shake/nod in opposition.

Speaking of how to recognize which is which: at least in Bulgaria, there are a few subtle differences which might give you a clue:

  • Nodding meaning “No” starts with head going downwards first, while normally one does the reverse. Nodding is also commonly accompanied by slight pouting.
  • In shaking meaning “Yes” the head doesn’t go left-and-right only, but there’s also a tilting motion to the side, i.e. the symmetry plane of the head is tilts with respect to the body, so that the head moves in a somewhat horizontal figure-8 trajectory. This kind of shaking is also more tentative than what one would do for a no-shake.

Generally people would subconsciously understand your nodding and shaking done the “correct” way without a fuss, but you might have problems understanding what they mean by their noggin motions.

Some finger gestures might be helpful (check first which ones are offensive in a given country, you might be surprised). In Bulgaria, thumbs-up for yes and shaking finger (or vigorously shaking head) for no should be fairly unambiguous.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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