{"id":59699,"date":"2024-06-29T15:36:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T07:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/?p=59699"},"modified":"2025-03-07T11:33:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T03:33:38","slug":"10-gestures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/life\/10-gestures\/","title":{"rendered":"What do you mean? 10 Japanese gestures to learn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foreign languages can be difficult.\u00a0 <\/span>Although language apps and classes help, they will only get you so far. Have you tried to speak Japanese over the phone or listening to the podcast in Japanese? When you cannot read a person\u2019s face and body language, it hinders the communication. Therefore,\u00a0 <\/span>learning some Japanese body language or gestures can really help you to communicate in Japan, especially when your limited vocabulary fails! However, they may be a little bit different from what you are used to back home. Let\u2019s take a look and practice together!<\/p>\n

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1. Come here<\/b><\/h2>\n

Stretch your arm out and wave your hand towards you with a full arm means to come here.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong> When you spot a beautiful lady at a bar,\u00a0 <\/span>\u201ccome here and join us for a drink!\u201d (Wave your hand towards you)<\/p>\n

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2. No way<\/b><\/h2>\n

Wave your hand in front of your face. Bonus points for not moving your elbow around much.\u00a0This one can be tricky for newcomers, who often confuse it with the western \u201csomething smells bad\u201d wave. It actually means no, or when something is different.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong> \u201cSo this is your mum?\u201d \u201cNo way! She is my girlfriend.\u201d (wave)<\/p>\n

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3. Counting<\/b><\/h2>\n

To count with your fingers for others to see, raise your hand and face your palm outward. Holding no fingers up in this position (a fist) is zero. Extending your index finger indicates one, and extending the other fingers (in addition to the ones already up) going towards the pinky indicates the numbers 2-4. Finally, extending the thumb outward, so that all five fingers are up, is the number five. The other hand is added for numbers above five.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take a look at the demonstration of finger counting from 1 to 9.<\/p>\n

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4. Showing directions<\/b><\/h2>\n

We are always told that it is rude to point at someone since we are a kid. In Japan, you always see people holding their palm face up with elbow bent, and extending the arm out towards the proposed direction.\u00a0Japanese usually use this gesture to show where thing and the direction is, in a graceful way.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong> You are looking for a bookstore inside a mall, the staff said \u201cgo left and you will find the store in the corner.\u201d (with hand pointing towards the location)<\/p>\n

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5. Me<\/b><\/h2>\n

Do not get confused when a Japanese point to their nose. They are not trying to tell you that there is ice cream on your face, but to refer to themselves.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cHey ! can you help me get the ice cream in the fridge?\u201d, \u201cMe?\u201d<\/p>\n

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6. Money\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Japanese gesture for money is a circle made with the thumb finger and the index finger, which looks like the gesture for ”okay.” Many people have mixed the two of them up, but the sign for money is usually made with the fingers out laying flat. So next time when a Japanese shows your this gesture, just bear in mind that it is not an ”okay”!<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong>\u00a0When your friends ask you to hang out with them, but you are running low on cash, so you tell your friends,\u201csorry, I don’t have the… (gesture for money).\u201d<\/p>\n

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7. No<\/b><\/h2>\n

When Japanese people want to say\u00a0\u201cno,\u201d or express the meaning for wrong, they will make a big X with their arms across the chest. This gesture means\u00a0\u201cdame<\/em>\u201d (\u3060\u3081) in Japanese, which indicates\u00a0\u201cno\u201d or\u00a0\u201ccannot.<\/em>\u201d This big cross can also mean\u00a0\u201cfalse\u201d or \u201cincorrect,\u201d When you answered a question wrong, you may receive this gesture of\u00a0\u201cbatsu<\/em>\u201d (\u3070\u3064) in Japanese. Have you ever noticed that there is an emoji of this gesture on the iPhone?<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cDo you want to eat natto?\u201d \u201cNo! I hate natto.\u201d (with the big X gesture)<\/p>\n

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8. Passing through<\/b><\/h2>\n

There is a particular gesture to use when you want to pass in front of someone in Japan. Japanese people will make a slight bow and shake their hand upwards and downwards. Next time when you want to pass through a crowd, or trying to make way, you can try to make this gesture together saying the word\u00a0\u201csumimasen!\u201d (\u3059\u307f\u307e\u305b\u3093) which means\u00a0\u201cExcuse me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong> When passing throng the crowd, say \u201csumimasen\u201d alongside with this gesture.<\/p>\n

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9. Eat<\/b><\/h2>\n

Shape one hand like a bowl in front of you, then make \u201cchopsticks\u201d with the first two fingers of your other hand. Then motion the \u201cchopsticks\u201d towards your mouth like you are shovelling in some delicious udon! You friend will understand the message \u201clet\u2019s eat\u201d right away!<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong> It\u2019s 8pm and you finally finish all the work, \u201clet\u2019s go grab some food I\u2019m starving!\u201d (Shovelling with your \u201cchopsticks\u201d super quickly)<\/p>\n

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10. Check please<\/h2>\n

When you want to ask for the bill after having a lovely dinner at a restaurant, simply make a “x” with your index fingers to the waiter, and your check will come along soon. This is a pretty practical one especially when the waiter is far from you.<\/p>\n

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Foreign languages can be difficult.\u00a0 Although language apps and classes help, they will only get<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13735,"featured_media":59818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15,4,2],"tags":[9887,9945],"class_list":["post-59699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kansai","category-kanto","category-life","category-travel","tag-all-prefectures","tag-gestures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59699"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59813,"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59699\/revisions\/59813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.likejapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}