Are you a gestculatory sort of person? Do you wave your hands about a lot when you're talking to someone? Or do you remain cool and aloof and keep your hands still? On my island we tend to be of the last complection at least in England and even more so in Scotland. I once spent the evening in the house of an old Scottish farmer way up in the north many years ago in company with my parents. We had been invited to have a coffee with the old boy but conversation and articulation were to say the least very sparse except for the occasional 'Aye'.
At one stage in the evening I thought maybe our host had left and gone to that great Sheep Farm in the sky but as it was very quiet you could still hear him breathing. In Wales of course they're quite different - very hotblooded and emotional and tend to copy the windmill when they get agitated. It's fascinating to see how people gesticulate for example when you watch the television with the sound off. As Shakespeare wrote - oh what would I do without Bill who supplies the language we'd all of us like to have up our sleeves but can never find? By the way that reminds me of the old lady who went to the theatre for the very first time and saw a play by Mr Bill. Asked what she thought of it afterwards she said: I never knew it was so full of quotations. But I digress - Shakespeare wrote:
"There was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture."
So, what about you --
Are you a gesticulatory sort of person?
If you have any English grammar or vocabulary questions,
please post them on this English Grammar Forum.
