Italian hand gestures: Difference between revisions
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#REDIRECT [[Gesticulation in Italian]] |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}} |
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{{Use British English|date=September 2016}} |
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{{Merge|Gesticulation in Italian|discuss=Talk:Gesticulation in Italian#Proposed merge with Italian Hand Gestures|date=June 2019}} |
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'''Italian hand gestures''' are a form of [[nonverbal communication]] specific to the [[Italians|Italian]] people, around 250 specific hand gestures have been identified, with the belief that they developed during a period of [[immigration]] in which seven main groups are believed to have taken root in Italy: the [[Carolingian Empire|Carolingians]], the [[Visigothic Kingdom|Visigoths]], the [[Normans]], [[Saracen]]s, the German tribes, French, and [[Austrians]]. Given that there was no common language rudimentary [[sign language]] may have developed, forming the basis of modern-day hand gestures. |
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== Introduction == |
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[[Hand gestures]] are a powerful tool that has been a large part of Italian culture. When one talks about Italian hand gestures, they are often associated with the stereotype that "Italians cannot talk without hand gestures" . Italians live in an immersive communicative environment where people communicate verbally but also using their body language. The use of hand gestures not only deepens an interaction between the speakers and listeners but also allows room to express oneself thoroughly. There are plenty of basic and useful gestures used in normal Italian conversations such as finger purse, finger kiss, prayer clasp, temple point, etc. Therefore, this kind of manual communication significantly reduces language barriers which promotes multicultural communication, given that Italy is located in the coastline of the [[Mediterranean Sea]]: a melting pot of languages. |
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== History == |
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==== Origins ==== |
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The development of hand gesture is closely connected with the communicative phenomena.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Communicative Gestures in Human Infants during the Transition to Language|journal=Gesture|volume=5|issue=1–2|last=Blake|first=Joanna|last2=Vitale|first2=Grace|last3=Osborne|first3=Patricia|last4=Olshansky|first4=Esthe|year=2005|pages=201–217|issn=1568-1475|doi=10.1075/gest.5.1-2.14bla}}</ref> And this non-verbal communication system cannot be formed within a short period. The early urbanization in Italy is believed to be the seed of capitalism which creates more opportunities for negotiations and bargains.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Centralization, early urbanization, and colonization in first millennium B.C.Greece and Italy|last=Attema|first=P. A. J|publisher=Leuven ; Dudley, MA : Peeters|year=2004|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref> The increasing demand of communication stimulates the widely use of hand gestures in Italy. In addition, the colonization stimulates the culture fusion leading to the need of another language to communicate, hand gestures. According to research, Ancient Greek colonization along the Mediterranean coast including southern Italy can be traced back to the early eighth century BC.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rathmann|first=H.|last2=Semerari|first2=G. Saltini|last3=Harvati|first3=K.|date=2017|title=Evidence for Migration Influx into the Ancient Greek Colony of Metaponto: A Population Genetics Approach Using Dental Nonmetric Traits|journal=International Journal of Osteoarchaeology|language=en|volume=27|issue=3|pages=453–464|doi=10.1002/oa.2569|issn=1099-1212}}</ref> After the fall of the Roman Empire, local language did not take a dominant position no longer, because of the arrival of new immigrants and colonizers from other regions of the world.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.grandvoyageitaly.com/6/post/2017/03/italian-hand-gestures-speaking-like-a-native-without-words.html|title=Italian Hand Gestures: Speaking Like a Native, Without Words|website=GRAND VOYAGE ITALY|language=en|access-date=2019-05-13}}</ref> The data indicates the seven main groups: the [[Carolingian Empire|Carolingians]], the [[Visigothic Kingdom|Visigoths]] , the [[Normans]], [[Saracen]]s, the German tribes, French and [[Austrians]].<ref name=":0" /> Additionally, Based on the extant funeral stone from the 5th century BC in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, two soldiers were recorded with the moment of hands shaking.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-greece/a-brief-history-of-gestures-from-the-handshake-to-the-high-five/|title=From the handshake to the high-five: a brief history of gestures|website=History Extra|language=en|access-date=2019-05-07}}</ref> And this is believed to be the proof of gestures in Ancient Greek which passes to and affected the Italian non-verbal conversations generations to generations even more than language. Until now, it has been identified around 250 hand gestures Italian used in everyday conversation.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brennan|first=Linda L.|date=2000-09-30|title=Let Your Fingers Do the Talking: Conducting Class with "Chat"|journal=Journal of Educational Technology Systems|volume=29|issue=1|pages=21–30|doi=10.2190/5qgv-efkp-9ygl-kqfa|issn=0047-2395}}</ref> |
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==== Renaissance ==== |
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The irreplaceable role of gesture in medieval societies especially in Renaissance is being acclaimed as the ‘une civilisation du geste’ by Jacques Le Goff.<ref>{{Cite book|title=L'Ogre historien : autour de Jacques Le Goff|last=Le Goff, Jacques, 1924- Schmitt, Jean Claude, ed. Revel, Jacques, 1942- ed. Augé, Marc.|date=1998|publisher=Gallimard|isbn=978-2070750894|oclc=803411090}}</ref> One reason that can explain the rich history of Italian hand gestures and one of them is about the cultural transmission and emotional expression during the period of Renaissance. Renaissance emphasized the restoration of human nature in the classical era with the aim of breaking the shackles of religion.<ref>{{Citation|chapter=The Italian View of Renaissance Italy|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=9781472599735|doi=10.5040/9781472599735.ch-018|title=Renaissance Essays|year=1988}}</ref> At that time period, people have stronger willing to express themselves and attract the attention from other people with the aim of humanity liberation.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=S. Celenza|first=Christopher|date=2013-01-15|title=What Counted as Philosophy in the Italian Renaissance? The History of Philosophy, the History of Science, and Styles of Life|journal=Critical Inquiry|volume=39|issue=2|pages=367–401|doi=10.1086/668530|issn=0093-1896}}</ref> By using hand gestures, they can gain a sense of satisfaction from delivering their thoughts. Therefore, Renaissance is a vial time point for the development of Italian hand gestures. |
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== Classification of Italian hand gestures == |
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There are two main ways to classify the Italian hand gestures. The first way is to distinguish them via the occasions them used, such as religious rites, gladiatorial arenas and daily conversation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Nature Embodied : Gesture in Ancient Rome|last=Corbeill, Anthony, author.|isbn=9780691187808|oclc=1076414916|date = 5 June 2018}}</ref> Another way is to differentiate the communicative and informative hand gestures in the Italian language system.<ref name="Abner 2015 437–451">{{Cite journal|last=Abner|first=Natasha|last2=Cooperrider|first2=Kensy|last3=Goldin-Meadow|first3=Susan|date=2015|title=Gesture for Linguists: A Handy Primer|journal=Language and Linguistics Compass|volume=9|issue=11|pages=437–451|doi=10.1111/lnc3.12168|pmid=26807141|pmc=4721265|issn=1749-818X}}</ref> These two types gestures might occur automatically, whereas informative-communicative dichotomy is used to explore the actual intention of them behind the conversation.<ref name="Abner 2015 437–451"/> |
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=== Religious rites VS Gladiatorial arenas VS Daily routine === |
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[[File:Ohrid annunciation icon.jpg|thumb|icons of the Annunciation|166x166px|alt=|left]] |
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=== Religious Rites === |
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In the oldest surviving Annunciation image,icons of the Annunciation, it can be found that the Archangel Gabriel is generally raised his hand before he started to mention something important. And this kind of gesture had been amply manifested by the behaviors of Roman rhetoricians when they were about to emphasis a key point.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://aleteia.org/2016/06/12/what-do-hand-gestures-in-icons-mean/|title=What Do the Hand Gestures in Icons Mean?|last=Esparza|first=Daniel|date=2016-06-12|website=Aleteia — Catholic Spirituality, Lifestyle, World News, and Culture|language=en|access-date=2019-05-07}}</ref> Until now, this kind of tradition still affects the conversation of Italians to begin an exordium. |
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==== Gladiatorial Arenas ==== |
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[[File:Jean-Leon Gerome Pollice Verso.jpg|thumb|''[[Pollice Verso (Gérôme)|Pollice Verso]]'' (1872), which popularized the "[[thumbs down]]" gesture. Oil on canvas, [[Phoenix Art Museum]]|259x259px]] |
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More recent researches suggest that the use of thumb up and thumb down originates from Rome in the gladiatorial arenas, to decide the destiny of the loser in that fight.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Corbeill|first=Anthony|date=1997|title=THUMBS IN ANCIENT ROME: "POLLEX" AS INDEX|journal=Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome|volume=42|pages=1–21|doi=10.2307/4238745|issn=0065-6801|jstor=4238745}}</ref> The loser may beg for mercy to the crowd, who would decide his fate by showing thumbs up or down. If he received more thumbs-up gestures than the thumbs-down, then the gladiator was to be spared. Thumbs down, on the other hand, signified execution.<ref>{{Citation|chapter=V. From Eternity to Five-Year Plans|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9781400831876|doi=10.1515/9781400831876-007|title=A Very Brief History of Eternity|pages=157–219|year=2010}}</ref> However, there is still a controversial around scholars about the exact meaning of thumb-up and thumb-down in ancient Rome. |
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==== Daily Routine ==== |
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The habit of talking with one's hands in Italy has been reported to address and reinforce the meaning of expressions. An icon symbol of Italian gesture is the movement of hand with an up-down activity. Under normal conversation, gesturing helps in delivering the meaning and receiving information. For example, when an Italian is begging for a help, he would put his palms together with fingers extended and press. Due to the difference in local context and cultural background, Italian has its own hand gestures system which might no always has the same use in different region even for Northern and Southern region. |
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=== Communication VS Information === |
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[[File:Uncle Sam (pointing finger).png|thumb|242x242px|Pointing [[Uncle Sam]] is an example of strong non-verbal communication, while this gesture is regarded to be impolite in many countries|alt=|left]] |
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==== Communication ==== |
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Communicative postures would be named active postures, since it is given on purpose by individuals. For example, when a speaker is enthusiastic to deliver important information to his audience, he might tries to emphasis on hand gestures rather than the speech.<ref name="Krauss 1996 389–450">{{Citation|last=Krauss|first=Robert M.|title=Nonverbal Behavior and Nonverbal Communication: What do Conversational Hand Gestures Tell Us?|date=1996|work=Advances in Experimental Social Psychology|pages=389–450|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9780120152285|last2=Chen|first2=Yihsiu|last3=Chawla|first3=Purnima|doi=10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60241-5}}</ref> A good example is about the picture of Uncle Sam, who is pointing his index finger directly towards you which is seen as a strong expression.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Goldin-Meadow|first=Susan|last2=Brentari|first2=Diane|date=2015-10-05|title=Gesture, sign, and language: The coming of age of sign language and gesture studies|journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences|volume=40|pages=e46|doi=10.1017/s0140525x15001247|pmid=26434499|pmc=4821822|issn=0140-525X}}</ref> |
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==== Information ==== |
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Informative gestures or passive postures refer to the hand movements that are not necessary or meaningful to the conversation, such as behaviors in scratching, adjusting clothing, and tapping.<ref name="Krauss 1996 389–450"/> Since this part of gesture does not focus on communication, it usually does not involve extra verbal communication. |
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== Basic Postures in Conversation == |
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The following section introduces some common and useful gestures used regularly in Italian conversation with words described.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gonomad.com/1766-italian-hand-gestures-in-conversation|title=Italian Hand Gestures in Conversation|last=gonomadtravel|date=2010-06-01|website=GoNOMAD Travel|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-07}}</ref> |
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==== Finger purse (Ma che vuoi) ==== |
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Keep your fingers together, with tips touching and pointing upward. Arm is about a foot distance away from the body. Hands can move up and down at the wrist or be held. |
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English meaning: What do you mean/What do you want? |
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==== Prayer clasp (Ti prego) ==== |
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Put your palms devoutly and press them in front of the chest. |
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English meaning: Would you please do me a favor? |
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==== Finger kiss (Eccellente) ==== |
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Bunch ten fingers together and lift them to the same height as mouth. Then use hand to touch the lips. |
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English meaning: Excellent. |
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==== A line in the air (Perfetto) ==== |
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The thumb and index finger form a circle, with the other three fingers extended and draw a straight line horizontally. |
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English meaning: Perfect. |
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==== Cheek screw ==== |
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Put one index finger on the cheek. |
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English meaning: Delicious. |
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'''Temple point''' |
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Extend the index finger and point it to one side of the head |
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English meaning: Think twice. |
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==== Eyelid pull (Stai attento) ==== |
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Using your index finger, tugging at your bottom eyelid. |
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English meaning: Watch out! |
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==== Finger cross ==== |
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Form and X in front of the chest by using two index fingers. |
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English meaning: I swear it! |
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==== Circle in the air (A dopo) ==== |
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Use one index finger and extend it to draw a small circle in the air. |
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English meaning: See you later. |
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==== Spaghetti (''Spaghettata)'' ==== |
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Index and middle finger imitate a fork picking up spaghetti and turn the elbow downwards. |
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English meaning: Eat spaghetti. |
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==== Dramatic change (''da così a così'') ==== |
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Place the palm facing downwards, then flip palm hand over to the facing upwards position. |
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==== Leave (''Andiamo'') ==== |
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With the palm facing inwards, flatten your fingers except thumb, after that shake hand in an up and down movements several times. |
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== Benefits == |
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The elaboration of hand and daily communication shows some advantages and the use of gestures help the Italian's expression more easy-understanding which is believed by psychologists.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Goldin-Meadow|first=Susan|last2=Alibali|first2=Martha Wagner|date=2013|title=Gesture's role in speaking, learning, and creating language|journal=Annual Review of Psychology|volume=64|pages=257–283|doi=10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143802|issn=0066-4308|pmc=3642279|pmid=22830562}}</ref> There are some reasons to explain that. |
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* Hand gestures reflect the thoughts inside speakers mind |
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Hand gesture act as a proxy to turn intangible thoughts into hand movements presenting the idea in a direct way. Recently, more researches have improved that there is a link between the cognition and action.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Goldin-Meadow|first=Susan|last2=Beilock|first2=Sian|date=2010-12-07|title=Action's influence on thought: The case of gesture|journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science : A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science|volume=5|issue=6|pages=664–674|issn=1745-6916|pmc=3093190|pmid=21572548|doi=10.1177/1745691610388764}}</ref> For instance, Broca's area a brain region functions an important role in speaking. In addition, this area is active at the same time when there is a hand movement.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/talking-with-hands-gestures_n_56afcfaae4b0b8d7c230414e|title=The Fascinating Science Behind 'Talking' With Your Hands|last=Gregoire|first=Carolyn|date=2016-02-05|work=Huffington Post|access-date=2019-05-27|language=en-AU}}</ref> |
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* Gesturing helps understanding |
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Effective communication, notably teaching, is a central application of cognitive psychology. Explaining processes that occur over time is especially challenging, primarily because of the complexity of the sequence of actions and their causes and consequences. Adding gestures that are crafted to congruently represent the actions to the verbal explanation deepens understanding of the actions and the system as a whole. Gestures are especially effective because they can both resemble and represent and also embody action.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kang|first=Seokmin|last2=Tversky|first2=Barbara|date=2016-09-22|title=From hands to minds: Gestures promote understanding|journal=Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications|volume=1|issue=1|pages=4|doi=10.1186/s41235-016-0004-9|issn=2365-7464|pmc=5256437|pmid=28180155}}</ref> As a consequence, gesturing is also regarded as a "second language". Italians use the hand movements in conjunction with their own language to convey the information, hence oral communication is supplemented by the gestures.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=MORETT|first=LAURA M.|date=2014|title=When Hands Speak Louder Than Words: The Role of Gesture in the Communication, Encoding, and Recall of Words in a Novel Second Language|journal=The Modern Language Journal|volume=98|issue=3|pages=834–853|issn=0026-7902|jstor=43651822|doi=10.1111/modl.12125}}</ref> |
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* Early hand gestures in childhood predicts a development for children |
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There is a conducted experiment based on the effects about hand gestures to children, it is found that hand gestures used at 14 months was an important indicator of the size of vocabulary at 42 months, significantly outweigh the vocabulary size of normal children who only affected by the parents and child words at 14 months.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rowe|first=Meredith L.|last2=Özçalışkan|first2=Şeyda|last3=Goldin-Meadow|first3=Susan|date=2008|title=Learning words by hand: Gesture's role in predicting vocabulary development|journal=First Language|language=en|volume=28|issue=2|pages=182–199|doi=10.1177/0142723707088310|issn=0142-7237|pmc=2745165|pmid=19763249}}</ref> Not only for language system, early gesturing immersive environment has a potential effect on individual's personality. Until now there is not a supportable evidence to explain the relationship between gesturing habit and biological genes. Whereas, it is found that people who prefer to use gesturing during their conversation tend to be defined with warm, agreeable and energetic characteristic, while less animated speakers are relatively logical, cold and analytical.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/2010/09/21/body-language-hands-gestures-forbes-woman-leadership-communication.html#3b24590928bc|title=Great Leaders Talk With Their Hands|last=Goman|first=Carol Kinsey|date=2011|website=Forbes|language=English|access-date=2019-05-27}}</ref> |
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== References == |
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{{Reflist}} |
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[[Category:Italian culture]] |
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[[Category:Gestures]] |
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Latest revision as of 23:57, 10 May 2020
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