Amy Adoyzie

I wasn't aware of how often I relied on the thumbs up gesture to non-verbally say, “Okay, alright!”, “Awesome!” or “Woohoo! Thanks for not running me over with your rickshaw!”

It just so happened that I was stricken with the stomach sickies and missed the Bangla language class where Fahrana, our instructor, informed us that thumbs up wasn't the happy-go-lucky signifier that we've known in the States. Later that night a couple security guards appeared in the foyer of our new apartment, mumbled something about testing keys in Bangla. I shrugged, grinned and flashed my two midget thumbs, “Okay! Thank you!”
They saluted me before leaving, like I was the captain of apartment 6C. I walked into Katherine's room to let her and Auggie know about our visitors.
“I dunno why they were here. So I just smiled and gave 'em the thumbs up.”
Katherine winced, “Oooh, Fahrana told us today that that's really bad.”

“Really?!” Woops.
“Yeah, she said it means like you're worthless, you're nothing.”
“Oh no!” We all winched a little more.
Now I'm wondering if the salute means, “Yeah, well, you're worthless too, you jerk!”

Thumbs down isn't any better. Katherine saw a man jam his thumbs down at our van on our way to visit the University of Chittagong. Fahrana said that its a sign of defeat, as if to say, “I beat you. You lose. I've stricken you with diarrhea and infinite mosquito bites.”