People Talk With Their Hands

“To Italians, gesturing comes naturally. ‘You mean Americans don’t gesture? They talk like this?’ asked Pasquale Guarrancino, a Roman taxi driver, freezing up and placing his arms flat against his sides. He had been sitting in his cab talking with a friend outside, each moving his hands in elaborate choreography. Asked to describe his favorite gesture, he said it was not fit for print. In Italy, children and adolescents gesture. The elderly gesture. Some Italians joke that gesturing may even begin before birth. ‘In the ultrasound, I think the baby is saying, “Doctor, what do you want from me?”’ said Laura Offeddu, a Roman and an elaborate gesticulator, as she pinched her fingers together and moved her hand up and down.”
 — Why do Italians talk with their hands? I have some good answers, but Italians also email with their hands, and today is the kind of day where I don’t think I can deal with an inbox full of AOL-account semi-literate rantings and questions about whether or not I would say the same things about black people, so I will just tell you to read this.

Photo by Alessio, via Flickr