class was over theteacher said "Oh we forgot to tell you the Hmong havea belief that the spirit resides in the head,the head is almost sacr and you don't touch it,and you wouldn't color anything on the head either It's a very powerful belief,and it was really important because had she not knownthe belief she would have thoughtthe children were ignorant they were rebellious,they refused to follow orders.But once that was explained to her,then it was cleared up.That's another reason why it's important to know multi-cultural manners because it's so easy to misinterpret the behavior ofothers when you don't have the right background. Which American gestures might be interpreted as obscene by other cultures? I laughed the first time that President Clinton was nominated because this was at the convention and at the very end he went like this.And I thought h Lord,inthe Middle East"ecausethis an obscene gesture.In South America,this"A-okay"is an obscene gesture.I had a student from Afghanistan-she was brilliant-and she went to the office at school to see if she had passed thetest,and the staff memb zed by her me that she was not American-bo n,an d sh wanted to let her know that she had passed thetest.So she went like this to her and the girl was so devastated she ran home and cried to her brother.He laughed because he had been here longer,he understood.She was just trying to convey that she had passed the test with flying colors. Pointing is very bad;I have had numerous people tell me.One in particular wasa girl who worked in one of the gift shops at Disneyland and a family came in,I think she said from Japan.They wanted to know where the rest room was and she said,it's over there and they became so enraged because pointing was also an obscene gesture.As this is also an obscene gesture.When I was teaching for a while English as a Second Language,I became so self-conscious ofmy gestures because the students were from all over and it was so easy to offend them.I tried not to use my hands which I ordinarily do.You just have to be very careful. Whatmight a smile mean in other cultures? There are many books that say the smile is universal.Yes,it's a universal movement b it'snot universally interpreted.For example Koreans believe that the smile is a sign of frivolity.That if something is important and serious,you don't smile too much.That same belief is held by the Japanese.In theold days,when they wouldtake pictures ofour diplomats with the Japanese diplomats,ours were alwayssmilingand the others were not and so people who saw that picture in the newspaper really class was over, the teacher said, "Oh, we forgot to tell you, the Hmong have a belief that the spirit resides in the head, the head is almost sacred and you don't touch it, and you wouldn't color anything on the head either. It's a very powerful belief, and it was really important because had she not known the belief, she would have thought the children were ignorant, they were rebellious, they refused to follow orders. But once that was explained to her, then it was cleared up. That's another reason why it's important to know multi-cultural manners because it's so easy to misinterpret the behavior of others when you don't have the right background. Which American gestures might be interpreted as obscene by other cultures? I laughed the first time that President Clinton was nominated because this was at the convention and at the very end he went like this. And I thought, “Oh Lord, we've just lost some votes in the Middle East” because this is an obscene gesture. In South America, this “A-okay” is an obscene gesture. I had a student from Afghanistan—she was brilliant—and she went to the office at school to see if she had passed the test, and the staff member recognized by her name that she was not American-born, and she wanted to let her know that she had passed the test. So she went like this to her and the girl was so devastated she ran home and cried to her brother. He laughed because he had been here longer, he understood. She was just trying to convey that she had passed the test with flying colors. Pointing is very bad; I have had numerous people tell me. One in particular was a girl who worked in one of the gift shops at Disneyland and a family came in, I think she said from Japan. They wanted to know where the rest room was and she said, it's over there and they became so enraged because pointing was also an obscene gesture. As this is also an obscene gesture. When I was teaching for a while English as a Second Language, I became so self-conscious of my gestures because the students were from all over and it was so easy to offend them. I tried not to use my hands which I ordinarily do. You just have to be very careful. What might a smile mean in other cultures? There are many books that say the smile is universal. Yes, it's a universal movement but it's not universally interpreted. For example, Koreans believe that the smile is a sign of frivolity. That if something is important and serious, you don't smile too much. That same belief is held by the Japanese. In the old days, when they would take pictures of our diplomats with the Japanese diplomats, ours were always smiling and the others were not and so people who saw that picture in the newspaper really