I goofed again.

At a loss as to what to say when a Melbournian colleague caught my eye at a reception, indicating a box of chocolates he had brought along to give me (everyone I know knows I love candy), I didn't say anything. Instead, I flashed a smile and gave him a quick thumbs up.

Sadly, in this scenario, it was thumbs down for me and my poorly chosen actions.

Apparently, in Australia, the gesture where you raise your thumb to silently say OK in America is not OK in Australia and means something not fit for print. I learned this since the chocolate incident when a friend from Sydney explained that the thumbs-up thing means something very rude in Oz.

Yikes!

In Japan, it's another story.

There, where people openly count on their fingers, the thumb is, well, not number one. So, if you start with your index finger and then add your middle finger you will be indicating you mean the number two. Put up the ring finger too and you get to three. Number four is indicated when you add the little finger but then you need to drop all four digits and leave up just the uplifted thumb to get to five. 

I tried that once in Osaka without knowing the rules and received five glasses of water when all I wanted was a single drink.

Duly noted, following are other foreboding hand gestures on the world scene.

!.  In the rock'n roll world, you might be considered cool if you hold up your hand while folding the middle two fingers down—that is unless you happen to be visiting Italy. There, this gesture (known to many as "The Vertical Horns") wordlessly lets the communicator tells you that your spouse is cheating on you.

2.  The peace sign of the index and middle fingers shooting upward and outward to form a V seems to be the everlasting way Americans—including a campaigning Richard Nixon—share well-being. However, in England if you hold your hand in a backward V (palm toward you), even a dedicated hippie will think you are telling her where to go, and not at all in peaceful terms.

3.  In most places, if you are hoping for someone to do her best, you can tell that person so without speaking a word by simply crossing your fingers. Not so in Paraguay. The same gesture in that Latin American country is tantamount to saying something very rude that's not fit for print.

4.  To ward off angry words, I have a habit of holding my hand up, bent at the wrist with my fingers splayed to tell someone to back off in a nice but firm way. If I did that in Nigeria I would probably get more than my wrist slapped since in that friendly African country the same gesture is considered very vulgar.

5.  A simple wave passes as acknowledgment in the United States, but in Greece it serves as a serious insult. That said, when visiting this beautiful European nation, simply flash a toothy smile if you want to make pleasant contact without getting into deep conversation. Soon there will be smiles all around as you move on to the next event.