“So it is two .. oh you think I am talking rubbish ... more or less?”. No, the taxi driver says with his hand gestures he drives for 2500 kyat (2$) and turning his hand means something like ‘no, can not’. In Holland the hand twist means ‘maybe’ and the Burmese hand gesture for ‘half’ means in my culture 'you talk too much'. There is nothing universal about hand gestures.

It is embarrassing how little Burmese I have learned, during our 5 months stay. I only know the bare basics (yes, no, left, right, hello & thanks). It is not because all Burmese speak excellent English; very few actually, considering the fact it used to be a British colony. The Burmese script is completely unreadable for me and most words have no connection with the languages I already know (except a couple of words derived from English like ‘lane‘). Mainly, it is just because I have been too busy with learning other stuff, like how to produce a debate show...in Burmese!

Because I don’t speak it and most people don’t speak English, communication comes often down to hand gestures. Somehow our brains assume is better understandable, but it isn’t. It turns out to very cultural sensitive. It takes a while to find out what gesture means what, which results in many funny and sometimes frustrating misunderstandings.

How to you ask somebody to come? In my culture you point your fingers upwards and wave them towards you, here you point your fingers downwards. If you want to drink something? I would mime as if I’m holding a cup, pouring it towards my mouth, here you point your thumb towards the mouth, as if it is a straw. The Burmese 'no, not can' gesture can also become a shaking hand next to the cheek, which means in my culture something is delicious.

There must be so many other signs I haven’t figured out yet. And I fear I’m still saying terrible things with my hands, in an attempt to make my point. So I guess we stay a bit longer and learn some more gestures and words...