Sometimes you gotta throw up gang signs to show which side you repping

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Hand gestures and their meanings can vary from culture to culture. Something which doesn't mean anything in one culture can mean worlds in the other culture and some gesture which is polite in one culture can be really offensive in others.

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I do talk with my hands when I speak. I tend to use a hand gesture paired with eyebrow movement to show the flow of a conversation as it happens and draw attention to key points and solidify meaning or ask things without speaking.

I'm going to take a crack at explaining this the best I can. Warning in advance, this may be very difficult to listen to and even more difficult to understand without someone to show you.

Here goes nothing.

When It's my turn to speak in a conversation and I am speaking to a point or elaborating on something, my hands are usually up in front of me in an outwards resting position, kind of in front of my stomach. Most of the time, if the flow of the conversation is moving forward, my palms are facing up loosely and my hands are open and I make little circles with one or both hands for meaningless filler words and bigger circles for the main points of what I'm saying. Let's define a few things quick so I can give an example of this.

V.S.C. = Very Small Circle; Only wrist movement involved and only 10% of total movement of the wrist, do this with filler words.

S.C. = Small Circle; Again only wrist movement but this time about 25% of movement, do this with words that provide context to a bigger point to bring focus to the importance of the context.

C = Circle; 50% wrist movement and possibly up to 5% lower arm movement, This is a point to be made in the conversation but maybe not the key takeaway.

B.C. = Big Circle; Full wrist movement, up to 15% lower arm movement, Do this one time for the big key point and finish into another gesture, usually to represent awaiting a response to this key point. Do this 2-3 times to set what you're saying in a condescending tone and do this 3+ times to ask someone to hurry up or get to a point. If you make half a Big Circle slowly, you're asking someone to elaborate on something or produce the rest of a thought.

T.F.P.L. and T.F.P.R. = Two Finger Point, Left hand and Right hand; This modifies the meaning of other hand movements for the purpose of counting or placing imaginary objects that exist in the conversation, when a thing is added in the conversation it gets a subtle but sharp movement to assign it to a place. Left hand may T.F.P. directly in front of it's talking position to say, "Over here" while your right hand may T.F.P. directly in front of it's talking position to say, "Over there". If you had something like your position relative to "Over here" and "Over there", you can place it in relation to the two points you've established. If you have a dining room and a living room that are connected you could T.F.P. the fridge with your left hand then T.F.P. the couch with your right hand and finally T.F.P. a final point to represent an object and the distance it is from the two prior points that you've set in space with your gestures. "Approximately halfway" can be emphasized with hands together flat, then apart quickly. This can also mean joined or potentially "of equal parts" as in of equal parts in relation to two different T.F.P.'s.

O.F.U. = One Finger Up; One finger up, This is your pointer finger, the rest of your hand palm down in a resting position but out in front of you in your "talking position". If you feel a slight strain or tension between your pointer finger and middle finger, you're doing it right. This means to "hold on", "pause" or to "back up the conversation". If you wag your pointer finger side to side then the meaning becomes "shame on you, don't do that" or possibly "no no".

T.F.U. = Two Finger Up; This is Pointer finger up and middle finger up. It has the meaning of an increased intensity compared to O.F.U. . T.F.U. is like O.F.U. with a firm tone.

I feel like this is beginning to be too much without an example but that's 80% of these kinds of gestures so I'm going to use them now in an example. This might be a little hard to follow in the case that you're listening. The format will be, the sentence, followed with a breakdown into word plus gesture associated with the word.

The sentence: "Hang on, I'm going to the kitchen to get something to drink."
The breakdown: Hang on O.F.U. , I'm T.F.P.L. going S.C. to V.S.C. the V.S.C. kitchen T.F.P.R. to V.S.C. get S.C. something C to V.S.C. drink B.C. + T.F.P.R.. + T.F.P.R. (with the Fridge Position).

The words with little or no meaning are a V.S.C. Very small circle. The words that build a context are an S.C. Small Circle. I ask someone to "Hang on" with O.F.U. One Finger Up. I declare my position with T.F.P.L. two finger point left hand. I make a final B.C. big circle on the key point, that I'm going to the kitchen. I declare the position of the kitchen the first time with T.F.P.R. two finger point right hand, then immediately after I T.F.P.R. again with the relative position that the fridge is to where I am currently, T.F.P.L. and where I'm going, T.F.P.R. which is likely the fridge which is in nearly the same exact position as the first T.F.P.R.

Another example. The statement: "Wouldn't it be better if we went to the pharmacy first? The pharmacy closes before the grocery store and it's getting late."
The breakdown: Wouldn't S.C. it V.S.C. be V.S.C. better S.C. if S.C. we V.S.C. went S.C. to V.S.C. the V.S.C. pharmacy C first B.C. (Half Circle ending palm upwards to ask a question)? The V.S.C pharmacy S.C. closes C before S.C. the V.S.C grocery store S.C. and V.S.C. it's V.S.C. getting S.C. late. B.C. (One time)"

The context gets a small circle. The filler words get a very small circle. The pharmacy is the topic of discussion so it gets a circle to bring attention to it as being the thing the context targets. We're asking a question in the first half so we finish half a big circle with our palm upwards in a relaxed position after half a big circle to ask the question. The same logic follows the second half of the statement but now we're providing our logic and all the context we build with circular gestures and small circular gestures now supports our logic in a statement, a big full circular gesture completed but only repeated one time.

Final example. If you made it this far, there were probably points where you wanted me to get to the point or be more concise. If this was a face to face conversation with me and you wanted to say that without interrupting me by speaking while I am, You could do three big circular gestures to ask me to hurry things up and get to the point but this is usually taken in a condescending way, it's best to only do this with people you know well and can be open and honest with. If you wouldn't tell someone to hurry up and finish speaking then you wouldn't want to do this.

There are more of these things that get included in this and it's like playing a musical instrument. Some things are loud, others are quiet. Sometimes you do things just to make something else seem more bold or to bring focus.

Informative thread now I am beginning to think how do I implement this stuff too much work haha!

We use our hands for emphasis in story telling. Making a point I often gesture by moving my hand to one side, from the mid to low position. Also we use our fingers when listing things.

To make a Bras d'honneur gesture, an arm is bent in an L-shape, with the fist pointing upwards; the other hand then grips the biceps of the bent arm as it is emphatically raised to a vertical position. It is probably best only done at the Olympics after winning a gold medal in front of a hostile crowd.