watup

As soon as a camera is pulled out, I hit my go-to pose. Knees bent, head back, half smile while throwing down a backhanded peace sign. I also rock this pose when leaving and entering a room. Needless so say, it didn’t take me long to find out that this particular hand gesture means “fuck you” in the UK, like giving someone the finger back home. I learnt this the night I arrived in Manchester but completely forgot a few nights later when entering a house party. We were making our way to the kitchen and I popped my head in a side room where a group of people were sitting around talking. They all looked at me, I threw down the backhanded peace sign and continued on my way to the kitchen. When I realized what I did my jaw dropped and my hands grasped my head. I just did something really offensive to an entire room full of strangers. I ran back to the room and asked if they had seen what I just did. “Ya, that was kind of a bitch move.” I frantically apologized while trying to explain that it means something completely different where I come from. I was just trying to say “watup.” They invited me in to chat and we all became great friends. One of the guys told me the historical reasons why flashing those two fingers is considered offensive to Englishmen. During the 100 Years War the French would capture the English and cut off their middle and pointer fingers so that they couldn’t use their bow and arrow. Throughout the war, which didn’t actually last 100 years, Englishmen would drop the back handed peace sign to the French to show they still had their fingers, effectively saying “fuck you.” The more you know…