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Do you "talk" with your hands?


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On a scale of 1-10 (1 being rarely, 10 being very animated) - where do you score yourself?

 

I'm pretty sure I'm a ten. "Listening" to the kid, I'm pretty sure she's a 10 also. I noticed today that she draws stuff in the air quite a bit, I'm guilty as well.

 

Do you have a reaction or opinion on really animated "hand talkers" with lots of body language?

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I'm Italian. 'Nuff said. :D

 

 

This is exactly what I was going to say :). Dh is not Italian. Before we were married I never noticed that I talk with my hands because everyone in my family does it. Early in our marriage dh taking it as a personal affront. Needless to say he's had to get over it because it's not something that's going to change. Dd is just like me.

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My Dad had a movie he filmed of my Mom at a party. It's shot from the shoulders down, just to show how much talking she did with her hands. She's French, not Italian, so it might be a whole Mediterranean thing. :D

 

Myself, I'm probably a 6 - 7. Luckily, as I progressed in my career, I ended up working for a company that honed presentation skills. They let me use my hands as much as I wanted, just helped me craft more pointed messages with the gestures occasionally.

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LOL. We sign.

 

My big kids were at the store awhile back and this man taps my son on the shoulder pointing out that another register opened.

My son turned and said, "Thank you," on his way over to the register. The poor man was so confused.

 

(My daughter and I are losing our hearing and have an interest in ASL. We stink at it; but I guess the average person wouldn't know that).

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LOL my husband appears to be pinching stuff out of the air and shaking at me when he talks. And he unknowingly does jazz hands when he's making a point. The funniest thing ever was when he said, "Do you ever notice how [different ethnicity] talk with their hands?" while talking with his hands. He's a 9.

 

I do not talk with my hands, unless it's completely intentional and I'm being silly. So I guess I'd put myself at 1-2.

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I wonder if we learn this or are born this way. Thinking about my parents, my dad wasn't, but my mother was. I think I have one sister who's worse off than I am, she's probably an 11, one brother who is such a 1 that it doesn't even register....

 

But say..if I were doing banking, and my teller was all hands in the air, I'd be annoyed and double checking her. Cashier at Walmart...not so much...so maybe it has to do with occupation a bit too. Don't know where it comes from...

 

I'm okay with being all Jackie Chan with gestures, it helps me to get my point across and avoid misunderstandings/or a deeper understanding I guess. Not sure what I'm after when I do it.

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Absolutely. I used be around a 9 or a 10, but I've schooled myself down to about a 7 or 8. When I was a kid, I was talking one day and my dad reached over and grabbed both my hands to hold them still. I immediately stopped talking. Of course it could have been because I was wondering what the heck he was doing, but the minute he let my hands go, I started talking again. I like to use my hands when I talk! :willy_nilly:

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Talking with my hands gets me in trouble!

 

I used to use my hands a lot more, but I started being more aware of it at 11 when I gave my best friend a bloody nose! He walked up behind me while I was chatting with the yard duty teacher and POW! I got him right in the schnoz! :tongue_smilie: Unfortunately his other "best friend" (yeah, right) was the class bully who decided to have his thugs beat me up over it. Apparently only he was allowed to beat up Keith and I was stepping on his territory. Fortunately I escaped unscathed by hugging my knees and making myself a dead weight when they decided to throw me on the blacktop. They could only get me a few inches off the ground and I landed on my feet and was unhurt.

 

My mom did the same thing to one of her 8th grade students. He left the classroom to go to the restroom while she was lecturing with her back to the door. He walked into her blast zone and had to head back to the bathroom to stop the bleeding!

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Probably zero unless we are pointing to something, we tend to speak podium style I guess. Older tends to have his hand behind his back as he talk while younger is usually holding a book or something as he talks.

 

We don't mind other people using hand gestures while they talk. My boys get entertained though and sometimes try to mirror the hand gestures (and we have to try hard not to laugh as we don't think it is good manners for them to do so).

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Yep. I used to always have a baby in my arms so it wasn't so noticeable, but now they are too big for me to hide behind. When I'm out in public, I always try to have something fairly heavy in my hands to keep them from flying around whilst speaking. It's totally uncontrollable. ;)

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I'm terrible. I accidentally hit people sometimes. I'm fairly energetic AND visual, so the gestures just make sense to me. I once annoyed a preschooler who knew sign language. Her grandmother was deaf, so her whole family used sign language. I noticed her watching me 'talk' and she had this disgusted look on her face. We don't know what she was thinking, but she was clearly put out by my "gibberish."

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On a scale of 1-10 (1 being rarely, 10 being very animated) - where do you score yourself?

 

I'm pretty sure I'm a ten. "Listening" to the kid, I'm pretty sure she's a 10 also. I noticed today that she draws stuff in the air quite a bit, I'm guilty as well.

 

Do you have a reaction or opinion on really animated "hand talkers" with lots of body language?

Yes, about a three. My husband would be a 10 and has knocked people before.

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I talk a lot with my hands and dh says I even make up sounds sometimes to go along with some of the movements/words I'm trying to describe. Fortunately for me, he actually thinks it's cute. Younger dd has followed in my footsteps, and I think it's cute too.

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Probably a 10. We sign. :)

 

Well, *I* sign quite often. DD has stopped signing as much as she used to. I need to get her back into it. DH has never taken to it as much though he always says he wants to. I slacked off for a while which is probably why DD did, but with the birth of DD2, I started up again because I want her to learn. DD1 still understands me, but her expressive has regressed.

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I took a public speaking class in college in which the TA led of her critique with the question, "Are you Italian?" She said my hand gestures were so fascinating she had trouble concentrating on what I was saying.

 

Sometimes the kids are terrified if I get really wound up while driving, since both hands leave the steering wheel.

 

I do the made-up sounds, too.

 

But I'd only rate myself about a 7 or 8, because I know I could be much, much more animated with little effort. THIS IS THE CALM VERSION, FOLKS. BE AFRAID.

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Me too. :) I have been known to knock things over while talking. Fortunately I've never hit anyone or knocked something out of their hands. I have however, accidentally let go of what I was holding and sent it flying.

 

 

Quoting myself rather than edit: I am not at all considered unusual among my mother's side of the family. It's only people outside the family who notice and/or comment on my need to talk with my hands.

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I used to be about a 9, but I've calmed down in my old age. Funny story: In high school, I had a drama coach that made us do an exercise regarding talking with our hands. We had to sit on our hands on a stool up on the stage and give directions to our house. No hands allowed. Needless to say, there was a LOT of flying elbows, shoulders shakin' and pointing with my nose. :willy_nilly:

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On a scale of 1-10 (1 being rarely, 10 being very animated) - where do you score yourself?

 

I'm pretty sure I'm a ten. "Listening" to the kid, I'm pretty sure she's a 10 also. I noticed today that she draws stuff in the air quite a bit, I'm guilty as well.

 

Do you have a reaction or opinion on really animated "hand talkers" with lots of body language?

 

Maybe a 3 or 4. I find it REALLY ANNOYING AND DISTRACTING when people do this. Talk to me with WORDS. I don't need your gestures and they only distract me from your point (I want to say and sometimes do say to my husband).

 

Even SNL makes fun of this when politicians do it.

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10. I also type with my hands, and walk with my feet.

 

I am always moving something while doing anything, even if it is my toes inside of my shoes, clench certain muscles, or rub my tongue around in my mouth (i.e. things I need to do when I can't move anything for whatever reason).

 

I am a total spazz. :D

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10. I also type with my hands, and walk with my feet.

 

I am always moving something while doing anything, even if it is my toes inside of my shoes, clench certain muscles, or rub my tongue around in my mouth (i.e. things I need to do when I can't move anything for whatever reason).

 

I am a total spazz. :D

 

No you're not. I am never completely still, either. Not even when I'm sleeping. Even now, I'm camped on the couch with the laptop typing, and I'm still wiggling my toes inside my slippers, tapping those tootsies to music only I can hear. You're in good company! hehehe..

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