“What does that mean?” Ted asked as we watched a movie.
“What?”
“That.” He hunched his shoulders up to his ears.
“You don’t do it in China?”
“No, what is it?”
“It means I don’t know. You don’t know and you don’t really care.”
Everyone tried it.
“No, just once,” I said. “Don’t keep doing it, that looks funny. Here: what time is it?”
“Ten-forty.”
“No, practice doing I don’t know. You don’t know what time it is. Are you ready? What time is it?”
They shrugged. It looked a bit funny without the noise.
“Okay, we also make a noise when we do it, like this: uhduhknuh. Everyone say it after me: uh-duh-knuh.” I exaggerated the inflection, making it sound silly.
“Uh-duh-knuh!” They giggled.
“It sounds like I don’t know: Idontknow. Uhduhknuh.” I paused, then asked, “So what time is it?”
Sixteen sets of shoulders shrugged as they voiced: “Uhduhknuh.”
“Perfect. You’ll fit right in.”
April 14, 2008 at 8:58 am
Awesome. Did you learn any particularly Chinese body signals? In Bosnia I learned tongue click/quick jerk of the chin which meant “No” and I had friends in Bulgaria who had a hard time dealing with the fact that nodding your head meant “No” and shaking your head meant “Yes”.
April 14, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Very fun story!
April 15, 2008 at 8:55 am
I can’t imagine having to adapt to such a reversal of signals. Our head nod/shake seems so ingrained I would’ve guessed it was universal.
Not apart from the mild bow, unless you count their complex finger-counting on one hand (which I have trouble remembering now).
In Uganda (1990) I once had a frustrating conversation with a man walking down the road. I asked if he lived around there, but he refused to answer. I asked again, using different / more polite words, but again he stayed silent. This repeated until my fourth attempt, at which point he finally blurted, “But I told you yes already!”
Later that summer I realized what had happened. Ugandans answered yes by flicking their eyelids up, effectively widening their eyes. It was subtle but distinct — I’d noticed his eyes widening, but assumed it was out of mild alarm (not understanding my question?). As weeks progressed more people responded with this gesture, allowing me to puzzle it out.
In Puerto Rico (1983-1986) people pointed with their lips. That took some getting used to — I kept thinking they were puckering up.
April 15, 2008 at 9:06 am
As far as I know, the reversal is unique to Bulgaria. All the other Balkan countries surrounding it do it the other way. My friend told the story of leading a Bible study in a church and reacting with alarm when everyone started shaking their heads at what he was saying…
April 15, 2008 at 9:13 am
Ha! … and the more alarmed he seemed, the more furiously they shook their heads to affirm him …
April 30, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Another interesting translation of body language was one I noticed in Japan. I stayed there for six weeks and because I knew very little Japanese they would often use hand signals. When we, in the US, motion to someone to follow us we usually extend our arm halfway and, with our fingers pointing upwards and palm facing towards ourselves, wave towards ourselves. In Japan, many people extend their arms straight and, with palm facing down, wave. At first I was always confused because it looked like they were waving farewell, but eventually i got used to it.