A hand gesture was lost in translation and cost a man his job.

The man, 29, surnamed Yu, had just started work as a driver in a foreign trade company in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. He was fond of communicating with foreigners using sign language as his English was elementary.

He was assigned to take a Spanish couple and their son, the company's customers, on a tour of Nanjing.

But on a number of occasions he inadvertently made a rude two-fingered gesture, which irritated the Spanish customers. The gesture he meant to make was that for peace.

It cost him his job.