Finger-Counting In Different Cultures

Good time to you my guest,
I want to share with a couple odd facts of the cultural differences in gestures, that you might never seen, thought, or heard about. Another day, when I talked to my classmates, I found out that some countries use totally unlike system of finger counting, then the most countries use. The fact shocked me because I had never payed attention to this matter. But when I stared actually thinking about it, I came up with a question that I wanted to find out the answer — Do we really think and show numbers differently, depending on our cultural background, or it's depending on the mentality of individuals?


But first of all, here are two quick and simple cultural tests that may indicate from what part of the earth you are.


Test #1 - From the book Dimensions of Body Language 
1. Hold up your main hand to display the number five - do it now.
2. Change it to the number two.
If you're Anglo-Saxon, there's a 96% chance you'll be holding up your middle and index fingers. 
If you're European, there's a 94% chance you'll be holding up thumb and index finger.

This is really interesting test, but, theoretically, those statistics above, that I borrowed from the book Dimensions of Body Language (Cultural Variations In Body Language, Cultural test) are statistical fallacy, more specifically they are misuse of statistics. They are not proper, because they used two groups that are not in the same categories and they are broad. First, “Anglo-Saxon” is a category that states about language, witch is English speakers. And “European”  is a category that states about the region, where European people live or it indicates that they were born in Europe. Secondly, how about others? There are a lot of countries that use almost the same finger counting but they didn’t include them. Additionally, there were no words that saying how they calculated those chances or where they took them. So, I going to tell you my point of view that is more specific, share with my experience, and with information that I found from the primary sources (interviews).

The reason for adding the statistics from the book, is not only to show that they are misuse of statistics, but to point out that they are almost right. I've done many short interviews with people, face to face, and I found out that most people from China, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia,Vietnam, Russia, India, Iraq, Turkey, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Congo, Morocco, United States, Mexico showed number "two" in the same way, and it is a big chance that all other people from other countries would show index and middle fingers. But, people that are from Poland, France, Germany, Italy showed index finger and thumb. So, what is going on? why people from Europe show thumb and index fingers instead of index and middle fingers as the rest countries do? Indeed, the way how people show the number "two" is not universal. It is seems more logical to show number "two" as European, because if you will place your hand in front of you (palm up) you will see that your thumb is out, and it's should consider as number "one" and index fInger as the follower shold be number "two". However, it seems more comfortable to show number "two" as most of the people do, because that is how our physical body structured; thumbs are shorter than the rest of the fingers and when you what to show numbers one (index), two (middle), three (ring), four (pinky) you probably using your thumb as a holder for the fingers to desplay a certain number.

Test #2 - From the Guardian blog post.
1. Now, without thinking about it too much, use your hands to count to 10.

(a) - the chance that you are probably from Europe;
(b) - the chance that you are probably from North America;
(c) - the chance that you are probably from Middle East

How did you do it? Did you start with the left hand, or the right? Did you begin counting on a thumb, or with a pinkie? Maybe you started on an index finger? And did you begin with a closed fist, or an open hand?

If you're European, there's a good chance you started with closed fists, and began counting on the thumb of the left hand. If you're from the Middle East, you probably also started with a closed fist, but began counting with the little finger of the right hand.

Most Chinese people, and many North Americans, also use the closed-fist system, but begin counting on an index finger, rather than the thumb. The Japanese typically start from an open-hand positions, counting by closing first the little finger, and then the remaining digits. 

Finger counting looks like a natural thing for any country – but it turned out that there are so many different techniques, and they are culturally transmitted.

I want to make a small but valuable correction and clarification, for the information above. All of those facts are real, but by my observation, those facts are not on 100% work in some cases. I asked people to do the same test, and people that were born in U.S. and from Chinese started the count with their index fingers. People that were from Middle East( Turkey, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq) mostly started with their little fingers. But, the last sentence, about Japanese way of counting is not certain. I've took the interviews with more that 15 people from Japan and they all didn't start with little finger. All of them started with open-hand position and closing the thumb first, but more then a half of them used only one hand to count 1 to 10.
The video below, about Japanese way of counting, will make more sense.

The most of the human beings had five fingers to each hand, so it only seems logical to start counting with the finger at one extremity of the hand or the other, in other terms either with the thumb or with the little finger. But some counties do start with the forefinger or even use other ways to show numbers.

The start with the thumb is the common way that most Western Europeans (such as Germany, Poland, Italy, and the French) count with their fingers, and it also extends to how they order drinks, according to a 2009 study from the University of Alberta-Augustana.
Interviewer story:  "I have learned this funny and odd way, during my visit in Oktoberfest festival (a traditional autumn festival held in Munich, Germany, every October that features beer-drinking and merrymaking). I was with my two closes people, and we decided to go to a beer place. When we got there, there was crowded, so I ordered 3 beers by showing 3 fingers; index, middle and ring finger. Waitress couldn't see that my thumb is folded so she brought 4 beers for us."
                                                                                                    —Aeldra Jones, (born in U.S.)
So, if you were to hold up an index and middle fingers in Western Europe to represent two, they might misunderstand and think you actually meant three. Though, you probably wouldn't be murdered like the American spy in "Inglorious Basters." If you saw the movie, a key scene revolved around an undercover allied soldier giving himself away in a German tavern by holding the wrong 3 fingers up when ordering a round of beers, because Germans count on their hands differently from Brits.

Film Inglorious Bastards 
"Three beers"

Anglo-Saxon countries (such as the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom) typically count with the index finger as the first digit and end with the thumb to represent five.

Still, for me, starting with the index finger makes no sense at all, but most people do it, and not only Anglo-Saxons countries.

Chinese's Finger-Counting

People from China also start counting with index fingers. But, the usual finger counting system that most people use unlike to the Chinese finger counting, because they uses symbolic gestures to represent any number higher than five. Such symbolic gestures need to be learned, and people from China learning those symbols from young age, and then it passes trough the generation to generations. This is mean that Chinese people think and show number differently based on their cultural background.

So, people count differently...what's the big deal?

The deal is that, there is a mental link between hands and numbers, and that link does come from environment that we are living in. Some of us are more comfortable to start counting with thumb, pinky, or with index fingers, but it took roots from our childhood. We learn small things in childhood, and our brains catch the information that we see in the environment that we are living in, and it build the mentality. We learn from teachers, parents, sibling, media, and from people that around us, and we start to act in the same way as we saw how to do it.

Overall, the gist of the article is that, knowing that there is a link between hands and numbers, and that how we process numbers mentally is influenced by how we finger-count, although it may seem automatic and natural to count in a certain manner, but it is actually a complex action that is learned and passed down within a culture.

Special thanks to all people that helped me to gain information. 

References:

* Burns, Corrinne. "What Does the Way You Count on Your Fingers Say about Your Brain? | Corrinne Burns." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 26 June 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2016. <https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/jun/26/count-fingers-brain>.
*  The book "Dimensions of Body Language" <http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/chap5.html>