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this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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If I count for myself my palm faces me. I turn it to show someone else, with palm facing them, as if it's a piece of paper with text.
In my experience in the US it’s interchangeable. Typically palm out is used to convey more cheerfully or for emphasis, while palm in is more casual or less emphatic.
I’m American. Until I was almost 40, that’s where I lived. Count with index first, thumb last. Palm facing the other person.
I moved to Norway al 39. Over time I have transitioned to counting thumb first and showing the back of my hand. No one told me, just trying to assimilate.
American, I show the palm.
Yeah a two-finger salute (back of hand facing them) is equivalent to giving the middle finger in the UK.
I wouldn't say it's equivalent - one finger is still worse IMO.
It depends on the angle I am to the person and whichever is the path of least resistance
American/British count palm forward but also learned to count BSL style with the only modification I use my thumb for number 3
If I'm dealing with someone who I can reasonably assume is not American it's palm toward me and thumb out (but not pointing straight up) for one, thumb and index finger for two, and so on. Many American hand gestures are offensive to other cultures and it's not hard to learn to do it this way.
I might be mistaken, but I think a thumb only gesture is offensive in some cultures. Not sure how important the hand orientation is.
You are absolutely right if it's the "thumbs up" gesture. I learned the European way, with the fingers curled but not closed and the thumb extended to the outside (right side for a right-hand gesture and left for left-hand) at about a 45-degree angle. This doesn't really look like the offensive gesture from my perspective but I realize others may disagree. Thankfully, as far as I know, I have never offended anyone doing this.
I worked on a game where we added the ability for the player to react to messages from other characters, but was told we had to remove 👍 as a reaction because it’s offensive in some places.
so as not to offend anyone I show from the side which sometimes causes fingers to not be seen properly, but these days you can't be too careful
I write the number on the inside of my hand, so that’s the side I’ll will show (the other side of the hand wouldn’t make sense, unless I would want to check what I had written).