One, Two, Three, Four, Five

How People Count on Their Fingers

I grew up with the accepted American way of counting on my fingers. It started with my index finger poking out from my fist as one. Next came the V for victory or the peace symbol, with the first two fingers on my hand flinging out from my fist — my index finger and the one next to it. My thumb tucked down the last two fingers so it didn’t get confusing.

Three was the index finger, the one next to it, and the one next to that flung out. Because the muscles in my pinkie finger weren’t all that grown up, nor would they ever be so, my thumb held down, my pinky and three fingers up. That was the Girl Scouts’ symbol if you kept your fingers together; three if splayed apart.

Five was easy with all four fingers, and my thumb flung into the air. You could give it an added emphasis by pumping your hand.

Of course, ten was to do the five sign twice. Or to have both hands doing it at the same time once.

However, when I was a pretty much grown-up person, I moved to Germany with my family. My father had been stationed in Stuttgart, and that’s when things got interesting because Germans do not count the same way we did.

It was funny when my father ordered a beer and held up his index finger. To a German that meant two. The real way, the German way to show two, is to hold up your thumb and your index finger. That is two. If you just hold up your index finger with your thumb tucked into a fist, a German will consider the thumb there in absentia.

So, an index finger to an American, meaning one, is understood by a German to be two regardless if the thumb is up or down. If you want to show one, you hold up your thumb, like the Romans did when they wanted to spare somebody’s life. My father was always getting two beers when he held up his index finger, indicating one beer. I don’t know if he ever figured it out. We thought it was hilarious.

Three is your thumb, your index finger, and the one next to that, all up in the air at once. Four has always been difficult for me to do. It’s that pinkie on both hands that never learned how to cooperate. I suppose if you took your other hand and held it down, the idea of four would be understood. Personally, I think you’d look like a twit, but they’d understand. Five, of course, is the same for everybody. Thumb and fingers all out in the open.

So, in China, Canada, the UK, and the US, folks count starting with the index finger. However, getting past five in China is a whole new ballgame, and the hand positions for six look to me like a goose head in shadow play. It is more complicated as you go along.

Folks on the continent, like Germany, France, Germany, Italy, and others, are going to count with the thumb first signifying one.

It gets more complicated in Japan, Asia, and in Africa. There are countries out there that count the tucked-down fingers instead of the fingers out waving in the wind.

Personally, it took me a long time to learn how to make the Vulcan symbol for Live Long and Prosper, that vee sign Spock used to make. I had to practice a lot, and now I can do it with no trouble.

Live Long and Prosper.

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