Developing intercultural communicative skills

The V sign in the UK and USA
A V shape made with your index finger and middle finger means “two”, “peace” or “victory” if you do it with your palm towards the other person and the back of your hand towards yourself. However, in the UK and a few other Anglophone places, if you turn your hand around so that the back of your hand is towards the other person, this is a very rude gesture. This kind of V sign is similar to the middle finger gesture explained below, although often more teasing or cheeky than aggressive and so slightly less offensive. Americans are rarely aware of the difference caused by turning your hand around for Brits, Australians, etc, and so can sometimes unwittingly offend when making a peace sign/ victory sign or (more commonly) asking for two of something.
UK and US gestures for the number two
The descriptions of a V sign above are also all true for the number two, which is most commonly indicated with the index finger and middle finger in a V sign. As with “peace” and “victory”, the direction of the hand does not matter for Americans and matters a lot for the British and a few other nationalities. The slight difference between “two” and “peace”/ “victory” is that you can also indicate the number without causing offense by keeping your index finger and middle finger touching, in which case the direction that your hand is turned doesn’t matter, even in the UK. However, the V sign is a much more common way of showing the number two.
The British thumbing your nose gesture/ Nah nah nah nah nah
As indicated by the alternative title to this section, this is a gesture that is generally used by children or by adults who are trying to be deliberately childish. It is a mocking gesture, especially used when you have done something better than someone else or want to challenge them, as in “Nah nah nah nah nah, you can’t catch me”. It consists of the thumb touching the tip of your nose with the rest of your hand pointing away from your face towards the other person. Then the four fingers are moved up and down separately from each other, as if your nose is your mouth and the hand is a trumpet. This can be made even sillier by touching the little finger of that hand and the thumb of your other hand and doing the same with that hand too, making for a kind of double trumpet. I was surprised to read that this is specifically British as it seems such as obvious thing to do, but I certainly can’t remember having seen an American do it.