In the 1970's four of our welding engineering experts from Trane Company travelled to our branch plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The purpose was to learn about the South American plant and share some of their welding knowledge with fellow employees.

The first thing on the agenda was a tour of the manufacturing facilities. They were looking forward to seeing the welding departments and interacting with the welders. At one of the welding stations the group was observing a welder finishing up a weld on a unit. When the welder lifted up his helmet he was greeted by our welding experts. They all looked at his welding work and smiled and gave him the American 'A-OK' hand gesture to show their approval. To their dismay the welder got up quickly, threw his helmet on the floor and obviously walked away in disgust. It didn't take long and his foreman came running up to them and asked what they had said to the welder. They explained to the foreman that they really didn't say anything. So then the foreman said, "You must have said something or done something to make him so mad". Then they told the foreman that they simply congratulated the welder by giving him the 'A-OK' sign. The foreman said, "You did what?" Then the foreman told them that in Brazil that hand gesture is equivalent to the American middle finger. Obviously, they felt embarrassed by their actions and asked the foreman to go back to the welder and explain that they were complimenting him on the nice job of welding. Of course, when the welder was given the explanation they all got together and had a big laugh over the misunderstanding.

From that day forward whenever trips were made to foreign plants our welding experts smiled a lot and kept their hands in their pockets.

CR4 would like to thank Bill Spietz of GEA Consulting, for contributing this blog which originally appeared here.