"Indian Head-Shake"

[swanwhite]

Hi there all! I have a question from my brother today. He works at a Subway which is a frequent stop for the east indian community in the neighborhood, and during his time there has noticed what he calls "the indian headshake". It usually seen as a response to a question, and instead of a yes or no, the customer does this interesting bobbing,

Comments

[jillianfish]

It's funny that you mention this. Sarah MacDonald wrote a book called Holy Cow talking about her experiences living in India and thats one of the things she mentions over and over again is the weird head bobbing. I haven't a clue what it means, and she never really tells us either. lol.

[swanwhite]

That's funny! Glad to see someone else was puzzled by it.

[pzelda]

I thought this post was going to be about how people nod their head to say "no" and shake their head to say "yes" - I hear there are some cultures that do this, but I don't know which ones.

The head-bobbing thing is interesting, though. Never seen that!

[feueraffe]

Maybe one of these explanations? I've never seen this and now I want to, haha.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_bobble

http://goindia.about.com/od/greetingscommunication/a/head-wobble.htm

[kohda]

It's sort of an I don't know/maybe/non-definitive.

I really like the Outsourced explanation: it's a way of answering without really answering.

I should add, answering as a non-SE Asian who lived in India briefly.

[kaylle]

I'm not Indian, but I've worked with a lot of Indian folks, and I think this is a very common gesture. To my knowledge, it means "yes" as in, "yes, I understand you". It doesn't necessarily mean "yes" as the answer to a question, it's more like affirmative listening.

http://indiathink.com/negotiations-with-india-indian-body-language/
http://www.theindiansabroad.com/2010/02/indian-head-wobble-desi-nod/