Teaching Italian hand gestures abroad

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If we go to Italy, sometimes it seems that we are immersed in an outdoor theatre. But what do all these gestures mean? Often they are an involuntary reflex and understandable message for everybody, but beware, these gestures are not universal. We should read them taking account of the cultural system, otherwise we risk ending up in some embarrassing situations.

In the Italian Cultural Centre in Paris, I have been teaching during the last two years the Italian hand gestures through images, film clips and simulations of everyday situations. In Italy, hand gestures can be considered as a proper and rich language system strictly linked to the Italian language. It has had a long evolution and it shows regional differences as the standard Italian language. Many signs are linked to Italian sayings – e.g., to the following expression: Mi sta sullo stomaco (I can’t stand this person), which suggest a weight on the stomach. The gesture expresses boredom and weariness with something (or someone) that proves indigestible.

Mi sta qui 3

Actually, some gestures are polysemic. For example, making horns by leaving your thumb and little finger out of a closed fist is used to refer to someone as a cuckold. But often the same gesture, pointing downwards is a superstitious gesture to drive away the bad luck. We can even address the horns to a person if we consider him or her as the cause of the bad luck. The Italian culture is rife with superstitious beliefs and it goes across all social classes, as the philosopher Benedetto Croce said: “It’s not true, but I take my precautions”.

Understanding Italian gestures is useful to understand Italian humour and popular culture. Actually, the Italian cinema is full of gestures. Let’s think about Totò from Naples who goes to Milan and speaks with gestures convinced that in Milan people talk German.

Or Roberto Benigni asking for a bank account without knowing the technical vocabulary.

Or Totò again in the short movie by Pasolini, where he plays the role of Iago and orchestrates silently Othello’s downfall.

Another teacher of hand gestures who has been an inspiration for me is Luca Vullo, a filmmaker from Sicily who lives in London, who made a documentary called La voce del corpo (The Voice of The Body), focusing on the Sicilians’ gestures in particular. When screened on U.K. campuses in Italian and Sicilian with English subtitles, the documentary is often followed by a workshop held by Vullo on using gestures to communicate effectively the theme of the film.

“What I did was to illustrate a linguistic resource typical of our country, but to present it as a real language. Italians have this amazing skill, and people all over the world envy our unique ability to express our feelings, to speak with our bodies.”

Find the trailer of his video on this link.

Books

The first book on Italian gestures was written in 1830 by Andrea de Jorio, La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano, first published in Naples in 1832, 380 pages. It soon became famous for its descriptions of Neapolitan gestures for love, lust, teasing and cuckoldry, rage, scorn, disappointment and disdain but it has only recently been recognized as the first ethnographic study of gesture. Andrea de Jorio studied the statues, objects and bas-reliefs of classical antiquity to understand the etymology of gestures in the Neapolitan daily life in the 19th century.

lamimicadegliitaliani-567x1024Another wonderful book is the Dizionario al supplemento d’italiano by the renowned Milanese artist and graphic designer Bruno Munari, published in 1958 and describing the gestures with concise texts in Italian, English, French and German, juxtaposed with artfully staged photography.

MarameoWorkshop – It’s your turn

Do you think that you can recognize the meaning of these signs? Try to understand the signs looking at the images. Then, watch the video by Jacopo Maria Cinti to check your responses.

Capture

Sources

  • Munari, B, Supplemento al dizionario d’italiano, 2014,  Corraini Edizioni
  • De Jorio, A, La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano, 1832, books.google.com
  • Learn to Speak Like an Italian: With Your Hands
  • Poggi, I, Gesti, in Enciclopedia d’italiano, 2010

Written by Francesca Bisiani,

Terminology Trainee at TermCoord