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Albanians (like Bulgaria, Albania shares a border with Greece) also nod up and down for no, and turn their heads left-to-right for yes. As in Bulgaria, this is
by EB-Barrington 9y ago
Albanians (like Bulgaria, Albania shares a border with Greece) also nod up and down for no, and turn their heads left-to-right for yes. As in Bulgaria, this is not universal throughout the populace - making it all the more confusing when you come across it during conversation.
Related: in Albanian, yes is "po", no is "jo".
- Vinnl 9y agoIt's even worse that some of them compensate when you're a tourist, nodding for yes and shaking their heads for no. But you can't know whether they're doing that.
- techolic 9y agoFor some reason I'm thinking game theory now.
- YeGoblynQueenne 9y agoFrench people also nod upwards to say "no". This is just one swift nod, not an up-and-down nod, and it's usually accompanied by a quick drawn-in breath. I've never seen that anywhere else. My friends who did that were Occitan btw. so maybe it's not all of France.
- pjmlp 9y agoBut in Greece a short nod up with some lip pressure is also no, right? At least that is what I am used to from my Greek friends.
- YeGoblynQueenne 9y agoYep. I found the French upward nod very confusing the first few times I saw it.
- mrolla 9y agoIn Italy, nodding upwards is a very passive aggressive and rude way of saying “no”. It’s accompanied with a quick lip smack rather than a drawn-in breath though.
- hk__2 9y agoI’m French (from Paris) and I’ve never seen this. I’d be confused as well if I ever saw it.
- gkya 9y agoIn Turkey we have raised eyebrows for a no, often denoting also some sort of pity/empathy if the lips are squeezed into a half-smile form (sometimes this is accompanied by a slow bobbing of the head).
- YeGoblynQueenne 9y agoI think I know the expression, yes :)
- heavenlyblue 9y agoIf you saw a Russian doing that it would most probably be a sign of hidden negative reaction to whatever you are doing.