Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: happy
  • Music: Jonathan Coulton, "Chiron Beta Prime."

In which ASL makes everything AWESOME.

Yesterday, I was demonstrating to a friend of mine (who finds my fascination with ASL charming, if odd) that I can now sign "Behold! For now I wear the human pants!" My grammar is a little wonky, but I'll be seeing Judi in a few weeks, so right now I'm just working on getting the signs committed to muscle memory.

A Deaf gentleman about my age saw me signing, and got very excited. He came over, and signed, "You know ASL?" (In the case of signs that I don't know myself, but whose meaning was evident from context, I'm including them to form actual sentences.)

I signed back "A little." Emphasis on "little."

He asked what I knew...so I showed him. Around the time I hit "working in a mine for our robot overlords" and "did I say overlords? I meant protectors," he started to look, well, dubious. Like there was a chance I thought I knew some ASL, when really, someone was messing with me.

Then I signed "The Turtle can't help you."

His eyes widened, and he proceeded to finger-spell "IT?" I nodded. He made an "S" sign, followed by a gesture like putting on a crown. I nodded again. He got even more excited, especially since now he knew I actually understood my messed-up assortment of signs. He had me teach him "robot overlords," and he taught me the sign for "weird."

ASL and Stephen King: bringing the world closer together. The best part is that, for once in my life, I can legitimately say that the Turtle did help us.
Tags: good things, in the wild, silliness, stephen king, wild adventures
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  • 62 comments

mskauri

February 19 2010, 16:48:55 UTC 7 years ago

And so goes our heroine, on the path of the beam.

I have to laugh--most Deaf folks get "Hi...my name is _______" or "Do you read lips?" from neophyte signers. That guy's probably telling all his friends about his conversation with the Hearing woman with the robot overlords. And I bet it's making ALL their days!

Did he teach you "weird" with 3 fingers that scrunch up and release as you move your hand across your nose, or "weird/strange/odd" where you rotate your hand in a C shape 45 degrees in front of your nose? Just curious...

beccastareyes

February 19 2010, 17:10:27 UTC 7 years ago

Well, at least 'Hi, my name is $NAME' is the first thing they teach you in any foreign language, along with 'please', 'thank you', 'goodbye' and 'shut up and listen/watch the professor'*.

* Okay, so usually more politely. But it's some of the bits of Japanese I remember is how to say 'read/listen/watch this, please', and 'repeat this louder/again/slower, please'.

mskauri

February 19 2010, 19:01:39 UTC 7 years ago

Very true...I still remember "Je m'appelle Sheila. Comment-vous applez-vous?" and the dreaded "Ecoutez.....ET REPETEZ!" from high school French. We got "Fermez les bouches et ATTENDS AU PROFESSORE!" too--more than we probably should have, but we had fun!

Still...never in my experience have I had anyone want to discuss robot overlords in ASL. Hope springs eternal!