2.3.3 Gesture
（ジェスチャー）
I recently watched a TED talk, and I was fascinated because the speaker gestured very well.
I recommend gesturing while presenting because it reinforces your words.
I wish I could, but I just don’t know how. Can you show me?
Sure. As a rule of thumb, detach your elbows from your sides. Some people move their hands with their elbows attached to their sides, but that makes you look frightened.
Instead, you should move your elbows away from your sides so that you can use your hands freely.
Okay. I’ll try to keep my elbows away from my sides, but I still don’t know what to do with my hands.
One common way is to use your hands and arms to represent your words. For example, if you have three topics to talk about, maybe you can say that with three fingers extended.
Also, if you want to mention an increase in your data, you can show that by moving your hand upwards.
How about representing ‘big’ and ‘small’ with my hands? For example, I can have my arms wide open when I say ‘I have a big data set.’
Sure, you can. That’s another common hand gesture. You can also represent ‘small’, ‘little’, or ‘tiny’ like this.
It’s also possible to make a comparison between two things by using both of your hands.
Very good. Now you have a lot of ideas for gesturing.
Yes! I’ll try some of them when I make a presentation, but are there any gestures that I shouldn’t do?
Yes, there are. For example, it is impolite to point at your audience with your index finger.
Hmm… is there an alternative to pointing?
You can direct your hand towards an audience with your palm open.
There may be other Dos and Don’ts in terms of gesturing. The best way to study them is to observe presentations given by experienced speakers.
That’s true. I’ll watch some more TED talks to see how other public speakers gesture.