Japanese Gestures That Confuse Foreigners

Comments · 226

• IN

  @InterviewingJapan · 3 weeks ago · pinned

  🇯🇵 Learn to gesture in Japanese - premium Anki decks with every episode + JP-subbed videos - 15% off annual subscriptions: <a href="https://patreon.com/InterviewingJapan">https://patreon.com/InterviewingJapan</a> 🇯🇵

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• RU

  @runestonedk · 3 weeks ago

  You could tell the older gentleman was a kind and sweet soul. Great find my good sir :)

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• GE

  @georgealbert6562 · 2 weeks ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Daebb8mybaA&amp;t=960">16:00</a> you can see the other interviewee walking past smiling.

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• TH

  @throughcolouredglasses9300 · 2 weeks ago (edited)

  Oh this reminds me how i met two very nice girls in my hotel onsen who used their combined english to help explain to me where to go in what order. They were very kind and helpful and made nice conversation despite the language barrier. When they left the onsen, they made sure to announce to me that &quot;we are leaving now&quot; so i said &quot;okay, bye :)&quot;and waved goodbye, which gave them a moment of pause. Then, they reiterated &quot;we are leaving now&quot; and made a little hand gesture i couldn&apos;t interpret at first. After a moment i realised that I was incuded in the &quot;we&quot; and they meant to tell me it was time to get out of the hot water! It was very nice of them. They looked so relieved when I finally got it and left the water too.<br>I think about them sometimes. Met them in a hotel by the ocean and they told me they just finished school and were taking the trip by themselves. They took the time to try and help me through my first (and so far only) onsen experience despite not speaking a lot of english and me not speaking any japanese beyond sumimasen and arigato. I really appreciate how willing to help they (and everyone else I met in japan) was, despite me barely able to communicate my questions.

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• SL

  @SLOBeachboy · 3 weeks ago

  The &quot;come here&quot; gesture really confused the heck out of me when I first moved to Japan back in the 80&apos;s as it looks almost exactly like the western gesture that is used to shoo someone away.

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• ER

  @ErOrNWi · 2 weeks ago

  I live in Korea and most of these are the same there. I&apos;d never seen the &quot;boyfriend&quot; or &quot;girlfriend&quot; gestures before though, so I asked my Korean wife if Korea has a gesture for saying you have a girlfriend. She did the same pinky gesture that&apos;s in the video.<br>I know they&apos;re two very different countries, but it&apos;s fun seeing these little commonalities.

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• RU

  @russellnolan9212 · 2 weeks ago

  &quot;She shoo-ed me away, then looked puzzled as I left.&quot;

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• JU

  @justinmorgan7851 · 2 weeks ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Daebb8mybaA&amp;t=90">1:30</a> My Japanese-born and raised wife made that gesture toward me after we first got married, and she was confused when I just sat there looking at her. Eventually, she asked me to come over to her, and I put two and two together and realized that&apos;s just how Japanese people signal &quot;come here.&quot;

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• MO

  @montazmeahii6029 · 2 weeks ago

  I had no idea &quot;O&quot; meant okay. I would see it and think it&apos;s a ballerina pose.

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• KU

  @kuro-koma · 3 weeks ago

  hold up... Avocado Whopper?<br>That sounds amazing wtf

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• ME

  @mediocreman2 · 3 weeks ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Daebb8mybaA&amp;t=58">0:58</a> I like how you translated his English into much more complex English &nbsp;😅

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• OL

  @Olor · 3 weeks ago

  this channel has helped disprove that all japanese people are sort of overly stiff and formal machines, and instead are just humans... who would&apos;ve thought...

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