emphasising with hands

ttaskmaster said:
As an actual technique, it came about at some point shortly after the invention of the lecture... so probably Ancient Greek times, I'd say. [..]
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I think gesturing during speech as a learned technique probably predates lectures in teaching because it's useful in politics and trading and it's based on natural movements. For those reasons, I think it wouldn't have been overlooked for so long.

Edit: Perhaps what goes back to ancient Greek universities is the oldest surviving written teaching material for the use of body language.
 
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d_brennen said:
Wow brings back memories, watched the whole video, thanks! Can you imagine the uproar now from this pearl of wisdom?! [..]
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Which one? Food production or energy production?

He was right about about energy production at the time, but he underestimated the power of science and engineering and human ingenuity when applied to energy production. Wind and solar could be more than the trimmings of energy production in the UK. Not as much as some people claim, but more than just trimmings.
 
Angilion said:
I think gesturing during speech as a learned technique probably predates lectures in teaching because it's useful in politics and trading and it's based on natural movements. For those reasons, I think it wouldn't have been overlooked for so long.
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Doubtless it would have happened naturally... but as something deliberately studied, developed, and formally taught (or 'invented', as the OP says), then definitely the academic lot.
I know some texts mention that Roman orators did have a range of fairly standard gesticulations and gestures, to help convey their speech when delivering their... orations... oratory(?), so it was seemingly long established by that point.

Angilion said:
Edit: Perhaps what goes back to ancient Greek universities is the oldest surviving written teaching material for the use of body language.
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Perhaps for intentional effect, rather than just as a natural thing, yeah.

NoobCannon said:
i always remind her that i am neither deaf or hard of hearing.
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Do you tell her, or do you sign it? :p
 
Digital X said:
My mum does this a lot, I very rarely do it.

Also, related:

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One of the channels I watch regularly on Youtube is Metatron, the channel of Dr Raffaello Urbani. He's Italian. He's a linguist and amateur historian, with most of his videos being on arms and armour in ancient Rome, late medieval western Europe (mainly the Italian peninsula) and Japan during the Sengoku jidai. Mostly in English, which he uses so often that he usually speaks it with a Sicilian accent, his own normal accent. He uses hand gestures a bit more than most English people would, but not much more. Unless he gets a bit passionate about something. Then the gesturing intensifies. Occasionally he gets passionate enough to briefly switch to speaking Italian and then the gesturing is enough to run a wind farm :)
 
Angilion said:
Which one? Food production or energy production?
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Oh, I thought I shared with the timestamp. His advice about a balanced diet.

"1. Eat enough, but not too much. In other words don't be hungry and waste away or don't get enormously fat"

But muh HoReMoans! I have slow metabolism and big bones!
 
SonicSW20 said:
Trust GD to have a thread questioning normal body language.
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I was kinda thinking this. As someone pointed out earlier, NOT using hand gestures usually indicates a person is deviating a fair way from the norm. But I also agree with who ever said that the gestures have to be natural. It all depends on context though: discussing the book you are reading probably doesn't need it, but discussing Boris Johnson does.
 
Noxia said:
Lack of gesticulating is common with autism.

Edit: I think I meant gesturing.
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I'm autistic and find my self gesturing, I don't think it adds anything to a conversation but helps me keep my train of thought going so meh...

maybe it's just how some people focus
 
arknor said:
I'm autistic and find my self gesturing, I don't think it adds anything to a conversation but helps me keep my train of thought going so meh...

maybe it's just how some people focus
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I dont do it much but I always have my hands doing something because I can't just be doing nothing. It's interesting anyway, I wonder what causes or doesn't cause people to do.
Also, I knew I couldn't be the only one on here!
 
Noxia said:
I dont do it much but I always have my hands doing something because I can't just be doing nothing. It's interesting anyway, I wonder what causes or doesn't cause people to do.
Also, I knew I couldn't be the only one on here!
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thinking about it maybe I'm just subconsciously trying to distract people from looking at my face/eyes since obviously with autism I don't have a whole lot of confidence socially
 
d_brennen said:
Oh, I thought I shared with the timestamp. His advice about a balanced diet.

"1. Eat enough, but not too much. In other words don't be hungry and waste away or don't get enormously fat"

But muh HoReMoans! I have slow metabolism and big bones!
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I didn't get any timestamp. But I watched the whole video anyone because I thought it was interesting, so no worries.
 
Noxia said:
Also, I knew I couldn't be the only one on here!
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It's an ostensibly 'tech' (really mostly gaming) forum predominantly populated by young to middle aged males. I don't think the sum of ASD posters exceeding single figures would be a huge shock, tbf... Whether they're diagnosed is another matter, but nonetheless I'm confident there's rather a lot.

I talk with my hands all the time, as do many or indeed most people. The only real difference is to what degree.
 
The only one that really bothers me is when people (predominantly politicians) point with their thumb resting on their index finger. It's just so clichéd and screams 'I really just want to point at you but I'm worried it will look a bit too Hitler-ish'.
 
Its natural to do it, we see it all over the world in different in cultures so its just the way language evolved.

What isn't natural is the carefully rehearsed power language used by politicians. Pointing with your thumb in a closed hand for emphasis without coming across too direct with a whole pointy finger. That stuff is just annoying :p
 
I was watching a video about this a couple of weeks ago.

It's a sign of dominance, to get attention. But most of it is subconscious. If someone is waving their hands around while talking then most people are going to turn around and look at them. If he wasn't doing any hand gestures most wouldn't notice him speaking. Some do it naturally, while others train to do it.
 
Well...I didn’t make it up :p

throwing your hands about and making or outlining shapes whilst doing so would be a slightly longer way to say it...I suppose
 
BowdonUK said:
I was watching a video about this a couple of weeks ago.

It's a sign of dominance, to get attention. But most of it is subconscious. If someone is waving their hands around while talking then most people are going to turn around and look at them. If he wasn't doing any hand gestures most wouldn't notice him speaking. Some do it naturally, while others train to do it.
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definitely not in my case, maybe it depends on how aggressive your hand gestures are
 
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