alt.hn

5/29/2026 at 2:33:13 AM

Italians and Dutch share the same gestural instinct for teaching

 https://www.mpi.nl/news/italians-and-dutch-share-same-gestural-instinct-teaching

by vi_sextus_vi

5/29/2026 at 5:40:40 AM

As a Sicilian and university computer science lecturer, I can say that hand gestures are my primary way of communicating concepts.

So much so that the old joke holds true. How do you stop an Italian from talking? Tell them to sit on their hands.

by agiacalone

5/29/2026 at 11:52:29 AM

I am Italian as well and love the joke, but it always makes it sound like any other culture doesn’t use their hands to convey meaning, which is obviously false. I do not notice a large difference between a northern Italian like me and any other American speaker, for instance.

Of course there will be a noticeable increase in gesticulation in an angry southern Italian person compared to a mild-mannered Englishman droning about philosophy.

Perhaps the difference lies not in the amount of gesturing, but in the heightened emotions of us southern Europeans.

by sph

5/29/2026 at 3:57:27 PM

> Of course there will be a noticeable increase in gesticulation in an angry southern Italian person compared to a mild-mannered Englishman droning about philosophy.

> Perhaps the difference lies not in the amount of gesturing, but in the heightened emotions of us southern Europeans.

As someone that has familial ties to both England and Sicily, although people on average are more overtly expressive in Southern Europe, the English are certainly not a monolith. For every "mild-mannered Englishman" there's also an equal amount of very "expressive" people, for example the meme of English tourists being absolute menaces in Southern Europe (especially Spain) does not come from the "mild-mannered" crowd, and I'm sure there are people who put up with these tourists that wish they were less expressive than the locals.

by ZenoArrow

5/29/2026 at 4:08:08 PM

Britons vacationing in Greece have to be among the least mild mannered people on earth.

Of course, it's the "hooligan effect", where the 2% paints a bad picture of the whole.

by epolanski

5/29/2026 at 6:26:13 PM

I mostly agree with you, even though I think "2%" is an understatement.

England is a very culturally diverse place, anyone that thinks that there's a great sense of social uniformity hasn't understood it that well.

by ZenoArrow

5/29/2026 at 4:06:25 PM

No joke, as an Italian after reading your post I tried to explain something to my SO at lunch and it felt so unnatural, like being chained.

by epolanski

5/29/2026 at 8:07:16 AM

Doubly so with CS in the mix. IMO.

by dnnddidiej

5/29/2026 at 8:11:14 AM

I only realized that dutch people are handful communicators when moving abroad. Apparently I do it unconsciously all the time.

For example we gesture when something tastes good and I don't even say "tastes good" out loud i just wave my hand next to my cheek. But quickly learnt that people think you're crazy in the head instead of complimenting the chef.

https://youtube.com/shorts/5a9Md32gSQg?is=fJ9BYQEt-CpEUE-g

by arianvanp

5/29/2026 at 8:33:42 AM

Eating only half a pepernoot and putting it back in the bowl is crazy behavior.

In this case the gesture is to not speak with a mouth full of food, which is understandable.

by retired

5/29/2026 at 8:38:55 AM

Also, she made the gesture twice without saying "mmmmm" while making it. Imo, that sound is part of the gesture.

by gman83

5/29/2026 at 9:39:43 AM

Italians have a gesture for this as well, and it speaks for itself: nobody says "mmmm" while doing it.

by hk__2

5/29/2026 at 1:20:50 PM

I also learned in an awkward way that waving my hand next to my cheek isn't an international sign for lekker. I moved to Canada about 20 years ago, and still sometimes do it, but apparently here it means you're signaling that someone is a little bit crazy.

by wkjagt

5/29/2026 at 9:32:11 AM

Needs the sound! Otherwise, even other Dutch people will look crazy at you. :)

by deafpolygon

5/29/2026 at 11:14:38 AM

Now I wonder if mixed Italian-Dutch children have two different forms of communication by gestures. Would be interesting, especially since neither are true sign languages.

by vanderZwan

5/29/2026 at 11:45:29 AM

I find there's a certain flavour of Scot that's quite gesticulative - I know that I'm one. My partner's Italian and I guess my gesticulation's ramped up since we've been together because when I watched footage from an event recently, I was borderline horrified at how wild my expressions and gesticulations were, especially as the person I was talking to (well 'at', seemingly) is an impressively English sort. Made for quite the contrast in manner.

I looked like I was trying to sell Guybrush Threepwood a sinking ship... .

by detritus

5/29/2026 at 8:29:51 AM

Im Dutch and I still have fond memories of my matrix algebra professor doing that.

He would stand in front of class. Close his eyes. And draw two matrices in the air with his hands and continue to explain matrix multiplication like that. It was a bit funny to watch at the time. But it stuck with me, so I guess it worked.

by ardim

5/29/2026 at 8:55:46 AM

Must be true. I have seen Dutch and Italian parents teaching their kids valuable social concepts with the exact same swift motion of an open hand.

by Jamesbeam

5/29/2026 at 10:10:22 AM

Ha! Speaking a language that everyone understands.

by christophilus

5/29/2026 at 1:11:09 PM

when everything else fails...

by Dansvidania

5/29/2026 at 7:25:56 AM

often when I discuss very abstract complicated subjects I use hand gestures to "place" the interlocking concepts under discussion at different positions in front of me while talking, and as I talk I will then refer to these "virtual objects" via gestures as a way of referring back to the previous point where they were brought in and "positioned" in the discussion.

by bryanrasmussen

5/29/2026 at 11:01:25 AM

That's a thing in sign languages like ASL. You can establish a person, object, idea, timeline, etc. at a location in signing space, then refer back to it later by pointing. Sort of like spatial pronouns.

Hearing people do a looser version too. I constantly find myself putting abstract ideas "over here" and "over there", then gesturing back at those virtual objects later in the conversation.

Basically: pointing as pronouns.

Put-That-There (1980) was based on exactly this idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIn8p4_4CQ

>Put-That-There was a gestural interface created in the Architecture Machine Group in 1980.

by DonHopkins

5/29/2026 at 11:21:39 AM

Yeah, one of the cool things about sign languages that most people don't realize is that it's spatial, and that allows it to be more "parallel" compared to vocal languages because its "information channels" (e.g. two hands, facial expressions and "whole body language") can be placed side by side inside that space.

Of course spoken language also has multiple channels (e.g. tone and sound) but they still lack the spatial aspect.

Apparently, people who pick up sign language later in life commonly typically make what is known as a "split verb error", where they structure their signs sequentially like vocal languages when they should do those things simultaneously.

by vanderZwan

5/29/2026 at 9:50:32 AM

It was drilled into me since childhood that speaking with your hands is lacking "class". On a conscious level, I know not to judge people by something as superficial, but on subconscious level, if someone is swinging their hands in the air while talking to me: I don't want to talk to them. It's the same with being loud, or using stop words etc.

I haven't been to Italy, but this was a huge deal for me living in Israel. In Israel, it's a substantial cultural divide between descendants of Arab countries refugees and those coming from Europe. It's generally seen as "proper" to not use your hands. In the military, especially in basic training, that would probably send you doing pushups.

I live in the Netherlands for about five years now. To be honest, I didn't notice people talking with their hands... well, outside of the Middle East or North African immigrants. Also, I don't really have Dutch friends to the point that we'd spend enough time together for me to notice how and if they use their hands during a conversation. In more formal context, I don't see the Dutch doing that.

by crabbone

5/29/2026 at 12:05:29 PM

> but this was a huge deal for me living in Israel.

I lived in Israel my whole life and I don't remember ever encountering the notion that 'speaking with your hands is lacking "class"' or that ' It's generally seen as "proper" to not use your hands.'. I just looked and easily found two videos with Israel's Prime Minister where he used hand gestures while talking.

> In the military, especially in basic training, that would probably send you doing pushups.

No, I don't think so, why would it?

by HappyPanacea

5/29/2026 at 11:36:39 AM

I was taught the same thing. In particular I kept being told that gesturing is an indication of a poor vocabulary. So I taught myself to never do it.

I do not mind gesturing itself done by other people, but I’ve found that it correlates a lot with violating my personal space. A lot of gesturing ends up being done right in front of my face, or just too close to my body in general. And that annoys me and makes me lose respect for the person doing that.

by throw838394

5/29/2026 at 9:56:07 AM

Must be horrible

by sdevonoes

5/29/2026 at 10:38:53 AM

Stop words are filler words?

um, uh, like, you know

by burner420042

5/29/2026 at 11:08:43 AM

It's not just gestures that are adapted; words are too. In the parts of Italy where I was born and raised, for example, adults used to adapt words to make them easier for children to pronounce. However, this practice has recently been discouraged by paediatricians because it can apparently hinder children’s later acquisition of standard language.

by andychiare

5/29/2026 at 11:26:24 AM

There's a hypothesis that sign language evolved before vocal languages, and that the latter "took over" as the default because it's energetically much more efficient. There's lots of circumstantial evidence but of course it's impossible to ever conclusively prove. This feels like another data point in favor of it.

by vanderZwan

5/29/2026 at 11:55:13 AM

As stated, this is too vague to be much of a hypothesis. Animals, including humans, communicate multimodally, so gesture and vocalisation are not mutually exclusive evolutionary stages. To claim that one evolved before the other, you'd need to define some relevant markers, such as grammar, cultural transmission or some anatomical adaptation.

by gobdovan

5/29/2026 at 3:54:11 PM

They stated in their comment that they can never have proof and it's a bit of persuasive whimsy. This is before writing.

I find it intuitively persuasive, others may differ, but if you're going to object then keep it on vibes as we all will never have evidence.

by nixon_why69

5/29/2026 at 2:31:34 PM

Well I wasn't about to spend hours looking up sources and details specifying this hypothesis. All I remember now is that it's one that's taken seriously.

by vanderZwan

5/29/2026 at 4:08:34 PM

I watched a guy driving on the interstate, one hand holding his phone to his ear, the other hand gesturing wildly, zero hands on the wheel (a few years before there was any car available that could conceivably be even so much as lane following).

Priorities, people, priorities.

by macintux

5/29/2026 at 4:25:22 PM

i hold the steering wheel with my knee all the time, and make reasonable corrections, curves on highways are pretty gentle. the key is to be disciplined about paying attention to the road ahead.

by fsckboy

5/29/2026 at 4:26:21 PM

If you're on the phone gesturing wildly to communicate with someone who can't see you, by definition you're not being disciplined.

by macintux

5/29/2026 at 2:49:12 PM

Having worked a lott with both Dutch and Italians, I can definitly recognise where this is coming from. That said, there most certainly are more differences. Imho if you would use AI to animate a dutch teacher with the gesticulation of the average italian teacher, people would not rate this average dutch teacher gesticulation but believable Dutch gesticulstion on the more 'energetic' end of the spectrum.

by PeterStuer

5/29/2026 at 2:54:48 PM

And here I was thinking that maybe there's something unique about Italians and Dutch way of explaining things to children... but this study was done only on Dutch and Italians. There were no other nationalities/cultures tested for comparison. Maybe if we tested all/most cultures we'd see the same patterns of using hands to explain things to children. Low signal.

by nedzynski

5/29/2026 at 2:58:57 PM

They chose those two particular groups for a reason.

> "The two groups were chosen because previous research suggests Italians come from a more 'gesture-rich' culture, while Dutch speakers tend to use fewer representational gestures overall."

They took two very dissimilar groups when it comes to hand gestures.

by NoSalt

5/29/2026 at 2:57:05 PM

I LOVE watching people's hands when they are talking, especially explaining. I like to imagine what "image" is in their head when they are making a particular gesture. It's quite fascinating.

by NoSalt

5/29/2026 at 9:31:46 AM

I don't know. I know some older Dutch folks are more handsy, but the young'ins? Nah. The new generation of Dutch are less so.

by deafpolygon

5/29/2026 at 5:15:26 AM

It seems reasonable to expect that some behaviors transcend culture and go back to instinct (tho expectations often conflict with reality) which probably is not even human specific.

IIRC Konrad Lorenz pointed out in Solomon's Ring that rooks will exhibit "infantile behavior" when grooming in a mated couple which, well, humans do it when they cuddle too.

As an aside: my favorite italian gesture is "tasty" (put index on cheek and spin back and forth) which is only used by and for children. I'm on a lifelong mission to spread it everywhere.

by riffraff

5/29/2026 at 5:42:00 AM

The Dutch version of this is to wave at the cheek.

by stabbles

5/29/2026 at 1:25:42 PM

I am Dutch and moved to Canada about 20 years ago (my wife is Canadian). Imagine our first meal at my new in-laws, and me not speaking much French yet (we're in Quebec), and still wanting to show my appreciation for the meal...

by wkjagt

5/29/2026 at 7:41:01 AM

jazz hand(s) !

by ramon156

5/29/2026 at 6:47:01 AM

> that some behaviors transcend culture and go back to instinct

My first thought was "is it only Italians and Dutch, or are the two the only groups they could cover with their given funding?".

by nottorp

5/29/2026 at 7:33:56 AM

> Here we ask whether, in a task where gestures are particularly useful—namely, spontaneous demonstration in which no real object is present—speakers of a high-gesture (Italian) and a low-gesture (Dutch) culture show similarities or differences in how they teach to adults versus children.

by Antibabelic

5/29/2026 at 9:54:21 AM

Correct but it doesn’t invalidate my question :)

by nottorp

5/29/2026 at 8:28:16 AM

I don't think these are special as in rare, but they are cool. Many countries have gestures for the same thing. In portugal you pick up the ear lobe with your index finger and thumb, stretch the other fingers and pull it a few times. It means tasty also. You may accompany it with saying "it's from here", as in the food "is from the earlobe" which means its good, but mostly its done silently.

by vasco

5/29/2026 at 11:04:45 AM

The trick to training rocks is telling them to perform behaviors they're going to do anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG0FAKkaisg

Oh, rooks! I though you said rocks. Never mind!

by DonHopkins

5/29/2026 at 6:38:26 PM

An adjacent joke I heard:

Q: How do you get an Italian to shut up?

A: Tie their hands up.

by penguin_booze

5/29/2026 at 7:46:24 AM

Keeps the hands slap ready when focus wanders.

by brador

5/29/2026 at 5:00:34 AM

If I understand the article correctly, the Italians and the Dutch use the same hand gestures to explain to children the concepts of Pizza and Marijuana respectively.

by JSR_FDED

5/29/2026 at 5:47:55 AM

I mean, they do go well together.

by agiacalone