Does anyone know about taboo gestures in Venezuela?

Question

I am a student, taking a course on global cultures. As part of a report on Venezuelan communication, I have to write about:

1. The language of Venezuela (not too difficult to find)

2.Conduct research to identify any verbal and non-verbal taboos for your assigned country.

The second item is one I am having the problem with. Can you help me with this?

Thank you,

Answer 1

Hi!  I'm actually an exchange student and i've been living in Venezuela for abt 9 months now....So i've learned a lot abt verbal &non-verbal communication here.  Like in the states flipping ur middle finger at some one means the same thing, but there aren't alot of specifically taboo non-verbal gestures.  Maybe u could put other types or non-verbal gestures in ur report to make up for it.  For example: In the states when u want some one to look at something u can point at it with ur pointer finger, but here they point using they're lips.  Kinda like when some one puckers-up to kiss (it sounds funny but it's 100% true).  Also if u hold out ur tongue and touch it with ur pointer finger it means that u think that the person who is talking is a liar (this is also done by showing ur teeth and touching them with ur pointer finger).  Another one is like the "ok" signal in the states when u put ur thumb and pointer finger 2gether to make a circle and leave the other fingers straight. Here u must hold it upside down with ur palm facing the sky... in Venezuela this means "g*y" .  Also making a bird shape by putting ur 2 hands side-by-side and connecting ur thumbs(like when making shadow puppets) means "g*y".  But the most commonly used gesture here is a facial one.  It's done by looking at some one and very quickly grimacing and returning back to a normal face expression.  Practice it in the mirror to really get the idea, first just look at urself regularly, then make a kinda angry face, and then return to ur regular expression again (u have to do it really quickly).  Basically this means "what's wrong?" or "Que tienes?" as they say here.  There are a ton more but i wouldn't consider any of them "taboo", people usually use them when talking with friends like we do in the states with things like "L" for loser.  I hope that u can use some of this for ur report and if u can, i'd like to know what grade u get..¡buena suerte! aka Good luck!

Answer 2

I don't think there are any taboo gestures.

Answer 3

I've been told that putting your hand in the shape of a Y.. like in sign language is another way of telling someone you want to sleep with them. Apparently it's a pretty vulgar way of doing it.

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