Which American gestures might be interpreted as obscene by other cultures?

Which American gestures might be interpreted as obscene by other cultures?

Norine Dresser (Writer) gives expert video advice on: How do I know how to greet someone of another culture?; How do signs of affection differ among cultures?; Which American gestures might be interpreted as obscene by other cultures? and more...

I laughed the first time that President Clinton was nominated because this was at the convention and at the very end he went like this. And I thought, “Oh Lord, we've just lost some votes in the Middle East” because this is an obscene gesture. In South America, this “A-okay” is an obscene gesture. I had a student from Afghanistan—she was brilliant—and she went to the office at school to see if she had passed the test, and the staff member recognized by her name that she was not American-born, and she wanted to let her know that she had passed the test. So she went like this to her and the girl was so devastated she ran home and cried to her brother. He laughed because he had been here longer, he understood. She was just trying to convey that she had passed the test with flying colors. Pointing is very bad; I have had numerous people tell me. One in particular was a girl who worked in one of the gift shops at Disneyland and a family came in, I think she said from Japan. They wanted to know where the rest room was and she said, it's over there and they became so enraged because pointing was also an obscene gesture. As this is also an obscene gesture. When I was teaching for a while English as a Second Language, I became so self-conscious of my gestures because the students were from all over and it was so easy to offend them. I tried not to use my hands which I ordinarily do. You just have to be very careful.