Hungry, heaving or headlights? Hand Signals Part 2
Two of the first fillers you ever pick up in Spanish are más o menos (more or less) and así-así (so-so), phrases that you hear over and over again in everyday exchanges. Half the time you don’t even hear them: you see them. “How was the exam?” Hold out your arm and rotate your wrist from right to left with your fingers open. Not so good. “Did you revise much?” Rotate some more. Not really. “Are you coming out tonight?” Look doubtful and keep the hand moving. Unlikely, better study for tomorrow. So it also means, don’t know, not sure, probably not.
Now you're for it
Another common gesture that speaks a thousand words is the ‘difficult’ finger and thumb shake. When you see someone flicking their hand backwards and forwards vigorously with their thumb and forefinger pressed together, (possibly with a raised eyebrows accompaniment), they are making a ‘my-oh-my’ comment on the trickiness or stickiness of a situation. “Juanito’s crashed his mum’s new car / caught his wife in bed with another woman / lost all the points off his driving licence.” Vigorous shake of the hand. Now he’s for it / has copped it / is up the creek.
Wanna drink?
We all know this one, don’t we? Clutch an imaginary glass and tip towards your mouth. Well, in the UK maybe, but not in Spain. Here, you don’t hold up a pint, you aim a porrón down your throat. To do this, you stick out your thumb and your little finger, curl the other fingers down, then raise your hand and pour – rather like an upturned version of the telephone gesture but with the thumb by your mouth, not your ear. The porrón, in case you didn’t know, is a communal drinking vessel with a fat bottom , narrow neck and a spout sticking out of the side. The position of your fingers in the ‘drinking’ gesture supposedly mimic the position of your fingers on the porrón. Interestingly, in Hawaii this hand signal – away from the mouth – is used as a friendly greeting. Desmond Morris reckons that the Hawaiian wave is, in fact, a legacy from early Spanish sailors on the island.
Heaving
Want something to eat? is fairly obvious and involves bunching your fingers together in a ‘hand purse’ and jabbing it back and forth at your mouth. Move the ‘purse’ away from your mouth and start opening and closing it rapidly, however, and it means ‘full’ or a ‘lot of’. For example, someone asks you how you got on at the sales, you start banging your fingers against your thumb and possibly add: “Estaba así” – it was like this, ie like your fingers are indicating. Or you walk into a packed restaurant and gesture wordlessly to the people you’re with: ‘It’s heaving, let’s go.’
Oh, and don’t confuse ‘hungry’ or ‘heaving’ with ‘headlights’. When someone does the moving hand purse but with the hand at shoulder level and the fingers jabbing down at the thumb (you know, like the gesture for ‘blah, blah, blah’), they do not fancy you / think you’re crazy /somehow know you talk a lot; they are just letting you know you’ve left your lights on.
Tags: Humour, Spanish language, Spanish life
