A homegrown "foreign" language - American Sign Language

Averon 2011 said:

it's that these are deaf dancers dancing in time to each other through the music which us hearing audience members can tell has a strong beat but the dancers themselves wouldn't really know.

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Extremely interesting. I can't speak for the showmanship of deaf dancers, but synchronization practice has be exhausting. Without taking from its drama, lots of deafies are excellent at keeping the beat. We can feel vibrations through the floor and in the air. My sister is a regular Ginger Rogers, staying close to the bandstand or speakers.

Thanks, Snitchcat, for your suggestion to change the title. Sara took care of that.

SaraP said:

"chinese deaf dancer"

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Thanks for the URL, Sara. Stunning in right. I dated her once, the girl with all the hands. She was a whizz at signing, really hard for a slow guy like me to follow, ha ha ha.



Just tried to test a "thank-you" smiley used at my deaf site. Didn't work here.

A lame joke and an answer to a question

This week's terrible politically incorrect joke:

The deaf buddy asks, "Was your wife mad when you got home so late last night?

The deaf husband replies, "She wouldn’t stop ranting and swearing, even after we went to bed, so I shut her up."

"You didn’t resort to physical abuse, did you?"

The deaf husband nods his fist, "Yes."

"Oh, my god! What did you do?"

"I turned off the light."


In another thread, Maryn asked if texting has served to integrate the deaf community into the mainstream.

My answer was too brief and dodged the issue, because I still can’t find anything close to a deaf community in my town.

However, for all of us deaf and profoundly hard of hearing--especially those isolated as I am--texting has been a terrific tool for communicating with the hearing world.

Before the ability to text on cellular phones, we had TTY. It’s known by other names elsewhere, but its operation requires a TTY unit hooked to a land-line telephone on both ends, or at minimum a TTY operator in the middle. The system was plagued with problems, not the least of which were public places claiming to offer the service but which had few staff who knew how to use it. In one library, the equipment was still in the box under the desk where a sign said they had a TTY telephone. Also many, many businesses then and now flatly refuse to take TTY calls.

I’ve used both Montana and Oregon Relay for the Deaf (deaf folks like me who can speak). This requires a special land-line phone with a readout screen on my end, and we go through a relay operator who types out what the person on the other end says. Even though the LCD screen is only a quarter-inch by three inches and quickly scrolls all capital letters, it was a terrific way to stay in touch with hearing friends and family without them having special equipment other than a telephone. There were some problems with businesses hanging up on calls, but a persistent operator (most all of whom are wonderful advocates for the deaf) usually managed to get us through.

Text phones are even better. More and more people have them, and more and more owners are learning to text. Back in the days of ten-key phones, I taught my boss, co-workers, and some friends how to text--often against their wills, ha ha ha.

With today’s instant send photos and full miniature keyboards, the communications for deafies with hearies gets ever better and better.

Averon 2011 said:

What you do is you raise your hands in the air above your head and you wriggle your fingers. . . .

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Good information. I'm sure you mean to rapidly "twist" both five-hands, rather than "wiggle" individual fingers. This is a relatively newer applause, as seen in Bill Vicar's ASL Dictionary at ASLUniversity. It's based on the sign "Wonderful," made lower with hands lifting heavenward slightly.

Sternberg's American Sign Language Dictionary and ASLPro's online dictionary still show the older applause: both hands are raised to one side of the top of the head and clapped lightly, without the intent to create sound.

The more fun and showy sign you mention is catching on. I like it.

http://www.lifeprint.com/

Once in the "A" dictionary, scroll to APPLAUSE.

Happy birthday

Today’s my birthday. I’m seeing lots of "happy birthday" signs:

1. "Happy" is made by with both five-hands at chest level, moving in and flipping up. Some lightly touch fingers to the chest; some don’t. The everyday "happy" sign can be made with one hand, but usually two for birthday greetings.

2. "Birthday" has a dozen or more signs. Many sign "birth" and "day," making three separate signs for birthday. However, after a smiling "happy," most sign an idiom for "birthday." You touch the eight finger (middle finger) of the open five-hand to your chin and then to your heart. More simple to do than to write.

I’m seventy today, so I sign it "seven-ought."

Numbers are done with one hand.

A zero or ought is a circular O-sign (fingers all together, none sticking up).

Any kindergartner can do one through five (except the deaf three is the first two fingers and a thumb to differentiate from "W").

The next five numbers start with the little finger (six finger) on the thumb. Then you go up in size (and value) to the ring finger (seven finger) up through the middle finger (eight finger) until the forefinger (nine finger) is on the thumb (looks like a finger-spelled "F").

A ten is a thumb-up, like navy pilots say "ready."

Probably more than anyone wants to know about numbers. Ha ha ha, it was more fun to sign my age when I was twenty rather than now.

I’m celebrating my whines with wine – the expensive kind in the big jug with the screw cap. No cheap corked stuff for me.

Chase

Maryn said:

Which brings up another question from an ignorant hearie. Are DVD subtitles sufficient for movie comprehension and enjoyment? How do subtitles differ from closed captioning?

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As usual, it's complicated (or I'm too anal):

Closed captions (CC) are the original words flashed on TV screens for the deaf, hard-of-hearing, and watchers who process English better when written. In the early '90s, I purchased a caption device about the size of breadbox which sat atop the TV. Spotty as they were (and often still are) CC is a Godsend for those of us who need it. In the US (different, I'm told, in other countries) CC is white dialog and brief sound-action descriptions in a black box. CC requires captioning at the program source and a TV with a caption player. Most TV shows, DVDs, and TVs now sold in the US support CC. There are problems, and some broadcast sources are worse than others (especially with robot word generators), but without CC, programs and movies are extremely difficult to understand, even for excellent speechreaders.

English subtitles (E-subs) are prepared as part of the film, no special player required, usually dialog only--no sounds or actions. The perks to subs are they have proper upper and lower case letters (Many CC presentations are in all caps) and spelling and punctuation are proofed worlds better. All of this improves speed of reading and enhances understanding. There are no boxes to blot out action; you can see around the letters, which seems to improve the visual experience.

Subtitles for Deaf and Hard-of-hearing (SDH) at this time is restricted to the better DVDs. I hope it becomes the communication standard for the news and entertainment industry. SDH has the best features of both CC and E-subs. We get well-proofed, see-through dialog in upper and lower case. If the speaker is off-camera, the speaker is named. If music plays, we're told the title and artist and we get lyrics bracketed by music notation so we don't confuse it with dialog. Background sounds are briefly described.

SDH is so great that I've become a snob and look for it on the DVD before I borrow, rent, or buy. For my sister and I, it's as close to hearing as we'll get in this world.

My girlfriend is a hearie (sharpest ears in the northwest, her kids claim) but always turns on captioning when she watches TV, even when alone, live performances or movies. She says too many people on screen mumble.

However, there are some who find captions a horrible distraction, so it's a good thing you can choose them or not.

Enjoyed your interesting take on closed captioned TV in China. CC isn't only for people unable to hear well.

Averon 2011 said:

What are your equivalents to rhyme, word play & tongue twisters?

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Before it moved to Fremont, my sister attended the upscale school for the deaf at University of California--Berkeley. She’s the real ASL expert, but awaiting her reply, here are my impressions:


1. Signs don’t rhyme, but many look like something else, though they mostly cause confusion. For instance, some hearing people begin pumping multiple thumbs-up signs, maybe indicating they’re okay with me being deaf, but it comes across as a nervous, "Ten-ten-ten-ten-ten-ten. . . ."

(Thumb up is the number 10). For me, it’s even funnier, as my name is one thumb-up fist chasing a second thumb-up fist, so it sometimes looks like the non-ASL signer is flashing my name over and over.

Another look-alike is the sign for hungry in another contexts also means starved for sex.

2. We have lots and lots of word sign play. Here’s just one example: Train-gone.

Instead of the upper two fingers on the sign for train, make an L (for "loser") then have it fly off the bottom "railroad track" fingers into a G-hand.

"Train-gone" is an idiom meaning: you missed it, and we won’t take time out to go through the whole long story to catch you up on what were talking about.

You might see it if you show up in the middle of a conversation and sign, "What are you talking about?"

3. For those born deaf or deafened early, learning to speak is always full of tongue-twisters. Even now, after totally deaf for only ten years, I garble words and say one word for another.

It happens in signing. Recently I signed to my girlfriend "Where-ready-lunch?" trying to say "Where would you like to eat lunch when you’re ready?" It looked to her as if I’d signed: "Where’s the restroom, loser?"

I'm lucky she has a sense of humor.

Averon 2011 said:

The subtitling I'm talking about isn't closed caption . . . the subtitles I'm talking about are not optional. . . .

The other thing it does not do is bring up each word separately as the person says them.

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Got it; thanks for clarifying.

I'm so very glad captioning and subtitles here don't flash one word at a time (or scroll like Oregon Relay for the Deaf phones). I speed-read whole lines while flicking back and forth between words to images.

The closest theater with movies for the deaf is one lone theater on certain midweek days thirty miles away in the capitol, so we wait for the DVD releases. A perk is the pause button for refills of buttered popcorn and bathroom breaks.

Katrina S. Forest said:

Do you have any suggestions for what to do (or not do) if someone's trying to learn some ASL on their own?

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Some ASL teachers disagree, but especially for adult learners, I believe practicing the fingerspelled alphabet and numbers -- with both hands -- is the best foundation to learning ASL.

At the very least, it can't hurt, as many, many ASL words and phrases are based on the hand forms of the alphabet and numbers.

On your own, learning from a book or still pictures is difficult, as you discovered with the flip of the little finger to draw a "J" in the air.

Videos with fingerspelling and ASL in motion are better (better: Begin to sign "good" then end with the thumb-up "ten" sign at ear-level beside your head).

However, live practice with a more experienced signer is always best (best: Begin to sign "good" then end with the thumb-up "ten" sign level with the top of your head).

Yep, full immersion ASL classes are intimidating, but hang in there and re-take the class until you master most of it before you move on to the next higher offering.

Don't be too rigid with yourself or others; as do all languages, ASL has different signs for the same word or phrase, and many signs change from locale to local.

Good luck with your ASL journey.