What?

April 23, 2017 9:44 PM

It's too noisy to communicate verbally. Or maybe there's a language barrier. Or you're trying to be silent. Non-verbal gestures to the rescue! Be ready in the following situations:

Operating a crane
Conducting an orchestra
On the flight deck
Officiating a hockey game (but that's not what icing is)
In the trading pit
Signalling the baserunners
Leading the SWAT team

posted by ctmf (27 comments total)

Laugh it up, MeFites, but that goddamn international sign for choking saved my life once. (It was surreal—everyone in the room was like "I think he's gotta puke, how much did he have to drink?" and dude who Heimliched me finally said "oh, he's making the international sign for choking, I think.")
posted by infinitewindow at 10:29 PM on April 23, 2017 [30 favorites]

Every Sunday morning at hangover o'clock someone was buzzing my intercom and not answering when I pick-up. Like a prank phone call. On the third weekend in a row of this I threw off the covers, yanked on some jeans and raced outside to confront the phantom asshole. And they were still there! Fucking around with the intercom. She didn't even notice me coming until I was looming over her, bare-chested with crazy bed hair. A big scary looking half naked dude.

She was deaf, and absolutely terrified. She's my neighbor's sign language tutor. She kept pointing at her ears and saying I'm deaf ! I'm deaf! Since her student couldn't hear his buzzer, she'd buzz everyone else in the building, and when you ask who's there, she doesn't hear it.

Now I know when there's a ghost on the intercom I have to run out and open the gate for her. Once I realised this was going to be a regular thing I started watching some youtube tutorials and picking up sign language. First time I tried it out she started gesturing and I sort of went ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, as in, 'I have exhausted my entire vocabulary and have no idea what you're saying'. She started teaching me something new every time I answer the door.

Been doing that for a couple of years now and I'm getting pretty good at it and we're friends. Even better, that neighbour who would just ignore me like a jerk when I'd say good morning in the courtyard. He's not a jerk he just never heard me and I didn't know he's deaf. Nice guy, a retiree who does giant jigsaw puzzles. And he doesn't care how loud my music is.
posted by adept256 at 12:35 AM on April 24, 2017 [146 favorites]

Previously, directing operations in a marble quarry.
posted by kandinski at 2:41 AM on April 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Could you all please type louder? There's some background noise here.
posted by Samizdata at 2:42 AM on April 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

At a social gathering
posted by ropeladder at 3:19 AM on April 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Operating a crane [previously on MeFi] The link in the original fpp has changed to here.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 3:37 AM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

In about 1997 I saw a version of the SWAT one for the first time and it included a hand sign for something I would paraphrase as "The delicate mechanisms of my sanity are precariously balanced". Sadly, I can't find that version anymore, which I use as evidence that things do disappear from the internet.
posted by procrastination at 4:00 AM on April 24, 2017

See also racecourse tictac
posted by dmt at 4:31 AM on April 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

The ice hockey one brought back this past weekend when I was at a fencing tournament and while we were waiting for the gold medal match, a teammate demonstrated a little dance with the referee hand signals, though she added a butt wiggle to the end (and made sure no one was videotaping, as we were all in an over-40 age group event).
posted by Peach at 4:37 AM on April 24, 2017

And for a funnier take: Fencing Referee
posted by Peach at 4:41 AM on April 24, 2017

Sign languages are a real thing with all sorts of advantages and challenges that are hideously poorly understood by the general public, but are profoundly interesting and have all sorts of aspects that would make for the best of the web. Maybe we can do better than a stunt post that mixes shit jokey memes with a handful of the limited sing languages developed by/for hearing people and that invites us to laugh at the whole concept of how millions of people around the world communicate and understand the world?
posted by Blasdelb at 5:36 AM on April 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Y'all need to start carrying semaphore flags.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:39 AM on April 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I put these kinds of jokes in the bucket of 'ambiguous thing has unexpected, ridiculous meaning' alongside re-labelling safety guides, IKEA catalogues, pronunciation manuals and Adam Hills' bit on sign language.
posted by Merus at 5:51 AM on April 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've had to do the crane thing back when I worked as an HVAC installer during the summers in college. It's nerve-wracking as hell to try to guide a ton of equipment into place while you're standing at the edge of a roof five stories up.
posted by octothorpe at 6:24 AM on April 24, 2017

It''s not about sign languages, blasdelb. It's about limited or specialized-use gesture codes which are not (and not supposed to be) a sign language. I'm fascinated when one of these systems gets large and common enough for someone to codify it, so there becomes a right way and wrong way to wave at someone.
posted by ctmf at 6:48 AM on April 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

Non verbal language can cut across linguistic and cultural differences. Not finger signals though, as they do tend to differ and are contextually relevant, but the human basics, especially eyes and expressive grunts.
posted by infini at 7:12 AM on April 24, 2017

so there becomes a right way and wrong way to wave at someone.

putting up just the little finger as a nonverbal signal that you're getting up to go to the loo is common in India - used in classroom settings and office meetings especially - but are meaningless everywhere outside that country
posted by infini at 7:13 AM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've seen it used in the US, infini. It's not particularly well known here but it does have a different usage, which is "You're very irritating and have a tiny penis. " I can't think why people would sign that to me though.
posted by evilDoug at 7:20 AM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Since her student couldn't hear his buzzer, she'd buzz everyone else in the building, and when you ask who's there, she doesn't hear it.

He should probably get his intercom modified so it lights up instead of buzzes. But then you wouldn't have made a friend.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:00 AM on April 24, 2017

Has anyone created a Motal Kombat-esque fighting video using those Navy flight deck GIFs? Because that needs to happen.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:29 AM on April 24, 2017

Or for a silent auction.
posted by Obscure Reference at 9:53 AM on April 24, 2017

I have to do this at work quite a bit for things like spotting a person backing a truck up, communicating needs over a wood chipper or determining what someone needs while they're up in a tree.

It can get pretty confusing when you deal with different people who don't use standardized signs.
posted by Ferreous at 10:40 AM on April 24, 2017

My wife and I have a couple of agreed-upon hand signals for social situations. It's mostly stuff I picked up while traveling, which is great because few people around here will know them. Especially useful is "It's rather crowded," and "Let's split."
posted by hydrophonic at 10:44 AM on April 24, 2017

My personal favorite is one hand counting: 1 through 5 are done with the fingers up, 6-9 are fingers to the side, 0 is a fist. Film camera assistants use it to communicate how much film is left in the magazine.

It comes in handy in all kind of situations, as long as you've bothered to explain it beforehand...
posted by rock swoon has no past at 11:44 AM on April 24, 2017

A while ago I spent a couple of months in Bolivia, enough to learn some of the hand signs of the Aymara women, especially one which they use a lot which is putting up your open hand and swiveling it left and right on your wrist, which means 'there isn't any', as in if you go to a store and ask for some coca tea and they're out, they'll give you this sign and say '¡no hay!'.
It's very useful when kids try to sell you stuff or beg for money, if you just say 'no', or 'I don't have any money on me', they'll keep at you for a while as you're obviously a rich gringo and they're entitled to some of your riches, but if you swivel your hand at them, they'll drop it and move on to the next mark.
posted by signal at 2:34 PM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm in tears over the that last SWAT link.

EDIT: it's three minutes later and I'm laughing again just thinking about it.
posted by intermod at 9:22 PM on April 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

SCUBA signals!
posted by amanda at 9:13 PM on April 25, 2017