Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with signlanguage

Playing with signs

HotPatatta — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:56:21 -0800

Is there such thing as a gesticular version of a pun or word play in American Sign Language? How common is it to play around with double meanings of signs? Can you offer humorous examples of signs having multiple uses or meanings?

Please hope me keep "hearing!"

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:37:38 -0800

I'm losing my hearing. What are my options? Almost every woman on my mother's side of the family eventually loses her hearing. The good news - this won't be a big problem for another ten years; the bad news - the first signs are showing up years earlier than my mother's and grandmother's did.

I do not have the option to see a doctor or audiologist right now and the chances are good that I won't have the option for a long while, but I will do as soon as I am able. Until then,I know that there's nothing I can do to turn around the hearing loss without seeing a doctor, but is there something I can do to allow me to continue functioning in society?

What I do know:
From my family history, I will most likely be completely deaf within thirty years, but I will be severely impaired within the next ten to fifteen. My symptoms are showing up ten to fifteen years earlier than the other women in my family. I don't want to find myself deaf with only a notebook and pen as my primary means of communication, so I want to start now and help reduce the impact of the problems I foresee. I know almost nothing about the deaf community, but I certainly don't want to offend anyone by asking ignorant questions or making inadvertently offensive comments.

I need tips on how better to read lips, and what options I have for cheap or free sign-language classes. Where should I look first? What questions should I ask when I get there? Should I try to learn ASL or should I go for a more international version? I live in the southern US, but I have friends from and will be traveling to the UK a lot, so I'm not sure what I should be doing. I'm at a loss about where to start.

Throwaway email: ehwhatdidyousay@gmail.com

Butterfly hands

stuck on an island — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:15:05 -0800

What is the purpose of sign language interpretation at the opera? A few months back, Mr. Stuck and I went to see a performance of Madame Butterfly at the English National Opera. As luck would have it, the performance that night was accompanied by live sign-language interpretation. The interpreter stood in front of the proscenium arch, dressed in black and discreetly lit by a dimmed spotlight, and signed along with the libretto. I do not understand sign language but her signing, which at times involved her whole upper body, seemed beautiful and expressive.

My only question is... why use sign language interpretation at all? The opera, although sung in English, was accompanied by English surtitles on a screen above the stage, so the words being sung were already clearly readable. And presumably the interpreter was using British Sign Language, which would be intelligible only to deaf or hearing-impaired visitors from the UK. Was she there for the benefit of people who are fluent in BSL but not English?

I was fascinated by how much emotion the interpreter put into her signing -- more, at times, than Butterfly put into her singing. I would be glad to hear anyone's experience of what live sign-language interpretation adds to a performance that isn't already available from a text libretto or surtitles.

What does it mean when someone flashes you a "C" while driving?

Hollow — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:49:55 -0800

Tonight around midnight, in South City St. Louis, MO, my mom pulled up to a stoplight left of a pickup truck, and the thirty-something, white, crew-cut haired driver flashed her a hand sign that looked, from her perspective, like the letter "C." He did this several times over the next couple minutes whenever he pulled along side her, until she managed to lose him. Has anyone seen this before or know what it means?

How to Learn ASL in DC

gyges — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:03:02 -0800

What's a good way to learn ASL in Washington, DC? I'm aware of Gallaudet, but it looks as if I've missed the fall enrollment deadline for classes. I can enroll in the springtime, of course, but in the meantime, I'd like to start learning how to converse with the deaf community in DC. I should point out that I have a 9-5 job outside of the city, so my options are limited to home study and evening/weekend instruction. My motivation for wanting to learn ASL (and start sooner rather than later) is because I've been half-deaf since early childhood, and my hearing in my remaining ear has inexplicably diminished throughout my adult life to the point that I now (at 31) wear a hearing aid and have significant problems when holding conversation in noisy/crowded environments.

So, where's the best place to start? Thanks everyone!

What is ixaratte?

ninazer0 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:00:37 -0800

Can anyone tell me more about "ixaratte"? It's supposed to be a complicated court sign-language of the Ottoman empire. I came across it in an article but further Googling turns up only - yup - the same article.

I must learn more about this!! Where do I start? (Other than buying the book listed in the article? I'm onto that one already...)

ASL in Houston

LittleMissCranky — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:30:54 -0800

Learning ASL in Houston Could anyone recommend a good ASL class in Houston? Preferably in the loop, preferably evenings, but I'm flexible. Any signing coffee-club sort of groups would also be great. Thanks!

Yoga in Spanish or sign language in the San Francisco area

salvia — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:32:36 -0800

Know of any yoga classes in the San Francisco Bay Area that are in Spanish or in sign language? A friend of mine is hard of hearing. Her native language is Spanish, so that is easier for her to understand. She also knows some sign language.

We have been going to yoga class together, but some of the instructions are actually fairly hard to pick up by sight. By talking to her afterwards, it's clear she's missing about half of what was said.

So, I'd like to find a class in the San Francisco Bay Area that is taught in sign language or in Spanish. Alternatively, maybe we could get by in a small class with a teacher who would really take care that she was understanding.

She's a 60-year-old beginner, so we need something fairly introductory and maybe even healing or meditation-oriented.

I'm sure there must be some non-english-speakers or deaf people in this area that are learning yoga, but I don't know how to find these classes. I've googled to no avail. My yoga-teaching friend even sent a note to a yoga teacher mailing list and didn't get a response. So, any ideas are welcome.

Thanks!

Would it be possible for me to talk twice as much?

uandt — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:55:40 -0800

If you are good at both talking and signing, to what extent can you have two simultaneous and different conversations going at the same time?

Age, Sex, Loc... er, American Sign Language

msittig — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:05:08 -0800

Baby signing classes in Socal next week? We're a couple visiting the (new) grandparents in north Orange County next week, Saturday the 29th through Saturday the 6th, and would like to attend a single baby sign language class sometime during that week. Preferably we would take advantage of a "one free preview class" deal like at Gymboree but are also willing to pay a reasonable price (under $100) for a one-time seminar.

So far Gymboree has said that they don't offer free previews of their signing classes and my Google-foo is failing me in turning up anything else. Does anybody know of any specific classes, or have any leads/contacts I could follow up on?

Baby Signs

roundrock — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:59:48 -0800

I'm working on some basic sign language with my 14 month old, and now that the weather's warming up, he has a real need to communicate the word "outside" when he wants to go out and play (he'll go over to the door and babble, but it would be great if he could come to me and tell me what he wants). Can someone explain (or link to a site with picture/video) the sign for "outside," "outdoors," or something similar? Bonus if the gesture is fairly simple so that my son can catch on quickly.

How are "calories burned" calculated for any given activity?

etoile — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 09:04:01 -0800

I'd love to know how many calories one burns during sign language interpreting - I think this might interest a lot of interpreters, actually. I found a very similar Ask thread here but it doesn't quite answer my question.

I'm a sign language interpreter, and when I'm working I am both moving and thinking hard. I have no idea if mental aerobics could burn any calories, but I know I'm moving. I haven't found a single calorie calculator that includes "sign language interpreting - vigorous" or "sign language interpreting - moderate" or anything like that.

Does anyone have suggestions for how I would calculate this? I don't really get how the lists are devised, so I really don't know how to begin.

A question about sign language.

LeeJay — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 17:52:48 -0800

A question for those familiar with American Sign Language (or other signed languages): When hearing speakers are surprised or shocked or wish to indicate they have just said something they shouldn't they often clap their hands over their mouth. This is usually immediate and seems almost involuntary. Is there something similar used by deaf signers or do they tend to use the same gesture hearing people do? The meaning of the hand over the mouth seems pretty clear. But I wouldn't think that deaf signers associate the mouth with communication in the same way and I am wondering if they do something different to communicate the same idea.

Does sign language have anything like a rhyme?

freebird — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 10:15:10 -0800

Does the concept of "rhyme" exist in sign language? That's a bit too vague - I know the concept exists, but I'm curious about examples, and whether it can be defined as directly as it can in verbal and (to a lesser extent) written language.