These gestures are not necessarily learned but acted out from birth. .
Acquired gestures are the hardest to appropriate. For example, giving a thumbs up here in America is another way of saying "Great!," whereas in Nigeria a thumbs up is a very disrespectful and insulting gesture. .
There are about 700,000 gestures put into practice by people all over the world each day. For example let's take a simple greeting and apply it to the different cultures of the world. Americans usually greet strangers by a hand shake. If the person being greeted is not a stranger, sometimes a hug is in order. Both a handshake and a hug have symbolic and historical meaning. Both demonstrate that neither of the persons taking part is holding a weapon. These types of greetings have been around since the middle ages for that reason alone. Next, the people of the Middle East have a different way to greet each other. The salaam is used. The salaam is a signal in where the right hand sweeps up first touching the heart, then the head, then up and outward. This is usually accompanied by a slight head nod. In some east African tribes people greet each other by spitting at one another's feet, and perhaps the most unusual greeting gesture known comes form the Tibetan way to say hello, sticking out your tongue. This is a prime example of how customs and cultures treat body language and gestures in separate ways. These acts would be considered acquired gestures whereas they are learned from the society that you reside in. .
In addition to the gestures we use to communicate on a day to day basis, there are other forms of body language that are highly developed and used for specific purposes. Some examples include sign language, flirting, and kissing. Sign language in America is the third most popular language following English and Spanish. Sign language was developed in France in the eighteenth century, and has been helping the deaf communicate ever since.