Monday, April 4, 2011

"OK!"

Guess what this gesture means in Brazil? 


Like me, you might have assumed it means "OK".  Because that's what it has meant your entire life.  It doesn't.  It doesn't mean that at all.

Actually, here, it means something worse than "asshole".  And somebody finally told me what I've been flashing around at them for eight days.  And as you can imagine, since I am walking around in a country where I CAN'T COMMUNICATE WITH ANYBODY, I've been flashing it plenty.  I guess I like to let people know I'm "OK".  Think about all the times you might use it, especially if you didn't speak the language, for example:  'This food is great', 'I can see just fine from here', 'I got a photo', 'thanks for the beer', 'I understand', etc, etc, etc. 

SO.  Here's how to really say, "OK" in Brazil.  You simply turn your asshole on it's side, OK?




Or, just go with another old favorite.  (I wonder what this one really means?)

5 comments:

Nancy Morris said...

I woke all 4 kids up laughing my........ok sign off!!

A Lady Reveals Nothing said...

HA!!!

Chai Town said...

You always hear stories of rude Americans. But I say: GOOD FOR YOU! When I was 17 I did a youth exchange in Italy. I will never forget how mortified I was on my first day of school my host mother waltzed into my room frantically chanting, "Die Nicole! Die Nicole!" I, being named Nicole, was fearful! To this day I still do not have amy idea what she was really saying --- but since Im still alive I assume DIE means something different in Italian.

Those language barriers (or in your case --- SIGN language barriers - HA!) can be a real pain in the arse.

A Lady Reveals Nothing said...

Or, maybe she was insane and had a knife behind her back, and the phone rang before she had a chance to murder you?

Chai Town said...

Definite possibility. They certainly seemed the type.

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