American Sign Language is a fuggly language.
Yes, you read me right.
It is not beautiful. It is not poetical. It is not transdescental. It does not sweep its acolytes into waves of ectasy.
Let me illustrate for you (using painterly strokes of the beautiful language otherwise known as English) my case:
Last December, I’m sitting in some hotel conference room at the Modern Language Association Conference listening, via ASL terp, to a quite enlightening panel on Disability Studies and Contingent Labor. Enlightening, yes, but exciting, no. So the entire time I’m listening, I’m also having this internal monologue about realizing how vastly different from Disability studies Deaf studies really is, and I really have almost no common academic ground with these people.
Anyway, the Q and A session begins, and a woman stands up and launches into this impassionated speech about how society is invested in “pair bonding” and sees every person as part of a couple; if you’re single, you’re, unfortunately, only half. She is intelligent and using words I don’t know; I’m sufficiently impressed with her.
Until she pauses and enthuses, “Oh, I just want to take a moment and really thank the sign language interpreters — they’re so wonderful! I’ve been watching what they do and they’re really skilled and what they do is beautiful and I couldn’t do it, so let’s all clap for the interpreters!”
The entire room, full of disability scholars, bursts into applause. I don’t. She goes back to her little commentary, and I ignore the rest of it, rolling my eyes along with the terps, who tell me later that this happens to them all the time.
Ugh. Gag me with a spoon.
Yes, let’s give the terps all the credit they’re due; they have a tough job, but they do it to earn a paycheck. They are not saints, nor are they miracle workers. They are not missionaries sent to communicate with the unreachable masses. They are skilled professionals serving in a field always looking for qualified recruits.
The exoticness of an unknown language is not an unknown thing. It is, after all, what turned Gerard Depardieu into a reluctant sex symbol once he started acting in English-speaking movies. Though, to me, he looks like a funny guy with a big nose who needs a haircut, I keep running across comments from American women that translate into swoons upon hearing him open his mouth.
Similarly, people who say ASL is broken English are guilty of interpreting ASL through their limited framework of English knowledge, just the same way we’re guilty of class/ethnic misunderstanding when we say Spanish has truncated grammar just because speakers may put the adjective after the noun.
But I say “ugh” not because people who call ASL beautiful are guilty of misunderstanding the overall elan of the language; but because when they say “ASL is such a beautiful language,” I cannot help but ascribe to them some (often condescending) variant of the following description:
Can’t learn it for whatever reason, so peppers us ASL-speakers with compliments so we know they mean well.
So of course I’m a bit sensitive when I read that Michael Chorost started his recent presentation at Gallaudet in the following manner:
“Open, in sign: ‘My name is Mike Chorost. Thank you for inviting me to Gallaudet.’
I wish I could continue in sign, because it’s such a beautiful language. My thanks to the interpreters and captioners for enabling everyone here to understand me.”
Stop giving ASL such a Narcissus complex. Next thing you know, it’ll have an eating disorder and die, and we’ll all blame the the world we live in for pressuring it into an unrealistic ideal of beauty.
Yes, sure, ASL is beautiful when rendered so by our community’s equivalent of Robert Frost or Nikki Giovanni. It is also butt-ugly when rendered so by our community’s equivalent of Howard Stern or Sacha Baron Cohen.
ASL is used when instructing a two-year-old in proper toilet paper application, differentiating between post-colonialism and anti-colonialism, and when asking directions or about weekend plans. Simply put, to the daily user, ASL is not an artistic endeavor: it is simply language — ours.
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65 Comments
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uhhh… a tad sensitive aren’t you, sugar pie?
It’s human nature this type of thing happens. They SEE the interpreters signing and I’m sure they can’t see YOU because you look like everyone else in the audience.
Allison wasn’t griping about the spotlight not being on her, per se. Methinks you missed the point of her article. From the plentiful comments that you’ve left on DeafDC, you seem like an intelligent person, so I suggest you go ahead and please re-read.
And Allison, I totally co-sign on what you’re saying… It has happened numerous times with myself. **rolling eyes**
i think yer the one who’s light seems to be dim, I’m aware she didn’t want the spot light on her, she’s feeling this deaf-o vibe that the general population neglects to acknowledge her presence because the interpreters are there for her. so her point is that the interpreters aren’t those who use the language they are merely, (shrugs) interpreters. so (finger) sit and spin Vikki… Learn2think.
THAT being said, the only thing i prefer from people in meetings like that is they look at me when they are speaking to me, not at the interpreter. that’s all, no muss no fuss.
Punky, that was out of line and uncalled for. You don’t have to agree with what others say, but I would think you can be a better person that to simply flip the bird and make such a rude comment.
You owe both Vikki and DeafDC.com an apology - this is a place for intelligent discourse, not personal insults.
Virginia summed up Allison’s blog with this paragraph:
“Or the folks who gush about how wonderful so-and-so was in interpreting at such-and-such an event, when you were there and wondering who hired this crappy interpreter in the first place, because she sure can’t convey the message properly. And of course the folks with all these shinining compliments know nothing about interpreting, can’t sign their way out of a paper bag, and wouldn’t know the difference if the interpreter was up there signing the Oscar Myer Weiner song. But they are perfectly capable of telling you how beautiful it was and let’s give the interpreter a hearty round of applause. Ohhhh gawd.”
THAT was it.
I won’t go down to your level of maturity. Believe you me, I throw mud with the best of them. Ask people who know. However, I respect the terms and conditions of DeafDC, which is supposed to be a civiled place where people can respectfully disagree.
*humming* R-E-S-P-E-C-T… Find out what it means to me…
Okay, so I can’t hum a melody, but dang, now that lyric is stuck in my head, and I don’t even know the whole song! *mock glares*
deaf-o? I agree with Virginia and Vikki. Your antagonistic words were uncalled for, and I ask you to retract your words to keep with the policy of DeafDC.com.
I ain’t apologizing for a damn thing… this is a BAD blog entry.
This blog is no longer subscribed by me. so good luck trying to reach me through it. =)
Why is this a bad blog? Is it because you feel like you’ve been targeted? I haven’t seen your reasons for this being a “bad blog” other than the fact you think Alli’s being too sensitive about the spotlight on her (which was not what she was talking about).
Punky,
I believe DeafDC is one of very few blogs that would handle up a mirror and spit many genuine truths that some readers do not like. Truth hurts like the light would kill the vampires.
DeafDC is an intelligent blog and teaches many deaf people to accept the truth. I have noticed that DeafDC is not on anyone’s side which impresses me a lot.
Gonna chime in here even though Vikki, Noelle, and VAB have said it all.
I think you, Punky, may have misinterpreted the point of Alli’s blog to mean outsiders (meaning people who don’t sign and who don’t know that ASL (or even any kind of manual communication) is not a play complete with actors and stage) are looking at *you* as the deaf person and *you* are to be commended for “overcoming” your “disability”.
The point was that even languages that are thought to be beautiful such as the French language; it has its own ugly words. “Merde” sounds beautiful to the hearing ear but it means “Sh**” in French. Just like if we were to sign “Sh**” in ASL (or any other manual communication), it would look like a beautiful hand gesture to a person who has no idea what that sign means.
That is all - it wasn’t about spotlighting a deaf person. It was about how any form of ASL is thought to be for entertainment purposes only and not simply a language that conveys meaning.
So true about beautiful languages not being so beautiful in their entirety. There’s this slang, off-color phrase in French: “Il est clair comme un cul de Negre.” Sure *looks* poetic, eh? It actually means “It’s as clear as a Negro’s ass.” The French are incredibly racist, and this phrase just scratches the surface. We American English users would NEVER tolerate a phrase like this in our language.
To “me:” That was a gorgeous example and I love it, but I’m afraid you’re undermining your own credibility when you say “We American English users would NEVER tolerate a phrase like this in our language.” I’m pretty sure we have and do.
ok I get what you are saying, not all languages have beautiful words. It’s merely a vocabulary that makes a certain language ugly whether it’s italian, french, ASL, english, you name it. I do not think that woman who applauded ASL for it’s beauty in vocabulary but it’s beauty to express the speech in a different language. If the interpreter was signing fudge languages during that speech, then we have a serious problem!
I know what you mean, Allison.
I’ve dealt with the same sort of thing…people who tell me “how they’ve always wanted to learn sign language because they think it’s such a beautiful language” and you sit there and wonder who the hell they plan to use it with, because it certainly doesn’t seem like they were ever intending to communicate with Deaf people.
Or the folks who gush about how wonderful so-and-so was in interpreting at such-and-such an event, when you were there and wondering who hired this crappy interpreter in the first place, because she sure can’t convey the message properly. And of course the folks with all these shinining compliments know nothing about interpreting, can’t sign their way out of a paper bag, and wouldn’t know the difference if the interpreter was up there signing the Oscar Myer Weiner song. But they are perfectly capable of telling you how beautiful it was and let’s give the interpreter a hearty round of applause. Ohhhh gawd.
I agree…ASL is a language that commands our respect - not our placing it up on a pedestal to gush over.
Yeah, I’m with you on that one. I teach ASL, and it’s hard to get real respect for it. Either it’s really beautiful, but too hard to learn. Or it’s just like English and I’m just being a bad teacher when I give them a bad grade for improper grammar.
Students want to learn the “fun signs”, but don’t want to work on the grammar or the technical stuff because it’s “boring”. I always tell them it is NOT ASL without the boring stuff, and if you want to sign like ME, then you have to learn this!
sigh..
If ASL has a Narcissus complex, then the French language must have a greater Narcissus one, given the way American girls swoon over French guys that repeat simplistic phrases like, “Je t’aime….” and “Merci beaucoup, mademoiselle, si vous plait, je voudrais…”
Are you aware that ASL came from LSF? lol
ha. What an ironic and funny twist to add.
I am quite aware of that. I may be oral, but I’m certainly not ignorant of the origins of ASL. :-)
*laughing* No wonder we American Deaf Signers are so narcissistic… ;-)
And, lest anyone dare to think otherwise, that was a joke. :)
Hi Noelle - I’m just rethinking how that example works well here — note the absence of French women swooning over French guys.
So… does that make Chorost and his fellow ASL-admirers the equivalent of a swooning American girl? *smirk*
Ha, I’d say so. I’ve noticed that languages that use vowels more than consonants are remarked on more often than languages that use consonants or sound gutteral.
For instance, with French, it’s “merci bookoo, see voo play, je voodray.”
With spanish it’s, “Si, yo comprenthe, too eres boneeta, yo keero torteeyas.”
It plays on the ear better than languages that use a lot of gutteral sounds. Then, when those native speakers of French and Spanish speak in English, they lend their accents to English so it sounds better to us.
i don’t know ASL but i can understand why those kind of statements that would be annoying, or even offensive. it reminds me of how people tend to gush that biracial children are so adorable. a while ago, i read an interesting opinion piece about that tendency (i looked and looked for it online, but can’t find it!) in which the writer said that she found it offensive to coo over how adorable biracial children are.
i wish i remembered the article better, but i think basically the writer said it is condescending because it implies the speaker is being so generous to accept the children DESPITE the fact that they are different, rather than just viewing them like any other kids. i can see some validity in that: going out of your way to emphasize how much you like a certain minority may not be as offensive as hating the minority, but it still sets them apart and implies that they are accepted DESPITE who they are, not accept FOR who they are.
however, i do think people routinely consider some languages to be more beautiful than others. people also say that spoken french is a beautiful language. german, to my ears, is not-so-nice sounding.
interesting post, anyway.
Good point about language beauty, but I like this best: “going out of your way to emphasize how much you like a certain minority may not be as offensive as hating the minority, but it still sets them apart and implies that they are accepted DESPITE who they are, not accept FOR who they are.” Well said.
they are accepted DESPITE who they are, not accept FOR who they are
YES. you nailed it.
but the germans can whup the frenchs any time. :-) doesn’t matter if the language is beautiful or not….
RE: your last commment…AMEN! ;-)
“it’s a beautiful language”.
leave it like that - the poor innocent remark - ever try to flick spanish on your tounge? more or less, listen to two native fluent speakers? Spanish is a beautiful language. I cannot master it myself because i don’t have the tounge to do it with.
Some, not all, have the ability to fluently sign ASL, which in that regard it is truly a beautiful thing to watch…and learn, if you dare.
Hi Mike! I have a picture of you at 5 years old in superhero underwear. I just wanted to share that with you.
LOL I agree. Why not we just leave it at that that ASL is a beautiful language. It would give people incentive and motivation to learn ASL and it will benefit us in the long run that majority of the population speaks 2nd language, ASL! Right now Spanish is the 2nd most used language in the country, so ASL is soooo beautiful!! my gawd, I’m hyperventilating how beautiful ASL is! I hope my promo works now ASL is the 2nd most used language in the country in 5 years! *wink*
Allison pointed out such common occurence among hearing people misperceiving terps doing all saintly or poetic works.
Here’s an incident with deaf West Virginian lady gave the speech somewhere in WV pretty long time ago. Audience flocked to the ASL interpreter and thanked her (terp) very much for the speech, NOT the deaf speaker herself.
The terp just took the whole credit for the speech. The deaf speaker was very angry and upset about terp’s failure to tell individuals that she (speaker) was the one giving the speech, not terp herself.
I could undy what Allison meant and feel about how ignorant hearing people could be about our American Sign Language (ASL) while someone interpret in the conference room.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
Again, not Allison’s point. She’s not talking about *herself* or the interpreters doing “saintly works” (although that Annie Sullivan complex IS a problem with some interpreters). Her point is that people are elevating ASL to the level of performance or eye candy and that ASL is not entertainment.
People appreciate the different and the exotic in their lives. People in dark-skinned countries exclaim over the complexions of white tourists. We exclaim over biracial children. Hearies exclaim over ASL. I exclaim about this being a nonissue.
Though, ASL is beautiful to me. I’d still rather see signs anywhere than try to comprehend any other language flapped on lips.
Completely valid point about beauty coming from preference.
I smiled at your calling this a “nonissue.” And even though I just used up some people’s valuable time writing about it, on some level, I agree.
Hearies also exclaim over deaf people speaking. “Your speech is SO good!” My well-practiced retort: SPEECH THE-RA-PY. I always emphasize the therapy.
I wonder what people would say about oral interpreters?
“Thank you for repeating what I said — KUDOS to you!” ?????
You know, I really hate it when hearing people, after talking with me for a while, exlaim to me “Oh you speak too well to be deaf” or even “I wouldn’t have known you were deaf since you speak too well for a deaf person.” It grates on me because it gets so “old” hearing that over and over — and whats the big deal about my speaking so well? A lot tend to press me on how I got to speak so well. I just simply say “Therapy” and they get this quizzical look on their face “huh? Therapy?”
All of this leads me to wonder what Vietnam or Iraq veterans who have lost their hearing would say to these same people who repeated what they said to me to them. I mean, whats the big deal with speaking so well? A lot of hearing folks don’t realize how much work and effort we put into learning how to read lips and speak at the same time. It can be very draining on us at times.
I agree with DianRez that I would prefer sign language over trying to read lips of those that speak a foreign language. Too much confusion can result from that. I believe that if I didn’t learn ASL earlier, I would have been in deep doo-doo with foreign speakers at speaking events. I’d rather understand them through signs than trying to wing it by lip-reading them as I know I wouldn’t enjoy or appreciate their speech otherwise.
I’m not going to join the gang, but I can empathize with Allison!
If I may share my experience - as I’m sure many here can also relate with you!
I love going to concerts and oh yeah, interpreter(s) is/are a big issue and a huge factor in influencing my enjoyment with the show.
At one concert - which was an epic show, by the way - two interpreters who were to use ASL by request ended up bickering at each other for help and used SEE!!
SEE!? I don’t want to be reading lyrics I already knew by heart!
People who walked by them gave them thumbs up, and “you guys are awesome!!!” The interpreters were giggling.
*attempts to breath, blood boiling*
“Sorry, we really tried our best…” was all they could come up with - even when they had the opportunity to practice on the songs I gave them three weeks PRIOR to that show!
Call me deaf-o, but those hearing-o need to learn their manners!
:D
Great blog, Allison! :)
I would’ve shouted, “How do you know? Do you know sign language?!”
But my speech isn’t intelligible, so I can’t really do that. ;)
Hmmm, neither is mine. :D
Suppose we BOTH do that… think they’ll get the message?
;)
*laughs* I think we would probably get stares, at the very least. ;) But it does look like fun.. let’s do that!
To an extent, I do believe ASL is beautiful when produced by a skilled user of the language. It’s like when I listen to someone who has a strong grasp of the English language give an impassioned speech, or read poetry. I feel inspired and moved, the same way I feel when I see a good story in ASL or a good speech.
I do think that hearing people can tell if the language is being used accurately or not. My father, who does not sign, has often commented on interpreters when we’re out, as he is able to tell whether they are skilled signers or not.
Yeah, the hearing people who do pay attention to interpreters (even if they don’t sign) do tend to figure it out. I took a class in grad school on second language acquisition. It was a 2-hour class, so two terps… one male, one female. The male terp was definitely better than the female terp (not just in terms of language use but also flow). During a group project meeting where no terps were present, the other people in my group asked me, “so, are the terps good? Not that I would know, but the man seems to be a lot better than the woman terp.”
Ayup. I thought that was really interesting.
I’ve often found myself thinking about this topic. I find it amusing sometimes, because I’ve even had people come up to ME and say my signing’s gorgeous.
I just have to laugh at that, because
1) They don’t know the language. How can they tell if I speak it well or not?
2) I know I don’t sign gorgeously. I sign sloppily and quickly, as a matter of fact.
So I’ve always had to hold back my retorts, such as I suggested to IamMine at the concert: “How do you know? Do you know sign language?” or signing profanity at them and watching them smiling, nodding and saying, ‘Wow, beautiful!’
Not that I’ve actually done that. I’m too well-behaved for that. But one can dream. ;)
My fingerspelling would make the ABCs crawl under a rock in shame. Needless to say, my receptive ASL is much better than expressive…but it’s true in any language, I would think.
Oh yeah. One would hope that your receptive skills is better than your expressive skills. That’s how our brains work, really. If it’s the other way around, then that is a sign of something very wrong.
And you’re not alone regarding fingerspelling… My fingerspelling is the bane of the interpreters who work with me. :)
Cool blog. I’ve said all along that language is vanilla, and it’s the nuances that flavor it. Recently I watched a church revival on TV just for the hell of it (pun intended) and it wasn’t captioned, and I tell you, the pastor was a symphony. It was technique all the way. That’s what some interpreters have mastered, the art of their craft… they sign with cadence and impressive use of space, which translate into grace, which can be appreciated on its own merits.
But Allison is right, it’s irksome when it’s all it is people are complimenting: technique. People don’t realize that these same interpreters might actually not be performing to par, and moments like these I feel like I’m being undermined and should interject with, “What? Take that back!” I want to be exclusively reserved the privilege of evaluation; for example, at Benihana, nobody walks over across the dining room and compliment someone else’s chef on his chopping wizardry. But hey, good intentions, good intentions. It’s only when someone delivers undeserving compliments to an interpreter that I strain to remind myself ignorance isn’t contagious.
Lastly, I’ll always hope for interpreters with grace over those with evident staccato. While interpreters with style might catch the favor of some, those with herky-jerky signing reminiscent of karate distract everyone in the room. And infuriate me so much that they make me want to deliver a karate kick of my own, sometimes to my own balls.
Ayala, praytell, how does your Dad do it?
One needn’t be a user of a language to determine whether it is being produced skillfully or not. Fluent users will move/speak quickly, with few long pauses. Slightly more inept users will pause for long periods or wave their hands in the air as if searching for the right words. I’ve even worked as an interpreter in classrooms where the non-signing teacher has told me I’m preferred over such-and-such person because they can tell I’m a better interpreter. *shrugs* Hearing people are funny creatures.
My 2 cents? A great blog, because its’ perfect for starting up a much-needed debate within our culture…it reminds me of a similiar debate that took place in the black community 20 years ago. certain activists have taken it upon themselves to decide who is “deaf” and who isn’t, and they’re using fluency in ASL as the stick to beat the rest of us over the head with. right now, honest discussion is just about impossible because we can’t say anything negative without being pursued down the street by a pitchfork & torchwaving mob of self-appointed “guardians” of the deaf community.
so keep it up, Mrs. K.!
I don’t see the connection at all. You’re really grasping for straws here.
i agree with the coment, that the terp should not have taken credet for the speach that was rude,im not sure i understand all of the coments, i have a neffue and a lady at the laundry matt i would like to speak with,and said lady did not get upset with me because of the way i was trying to sine. i dont know what asl is but you guys have me afraid to even try to learn , i get biched at enoff for my louzy spelling.
I’d like, if I may, to take a moment to respond to this comment.
I know birch personally - she’s one of my spiritual students and colleagues. She’s a hearing individual with a big heart and a true desire to try and understand the Deaf Community.
Birch has a learning disability that hinders her ability to read and write effectively. Actually she reads pretty well, but when it comes to trying to write, as she says herself…her spelling leaves something to be desired.
It’s not her fault…unfortunately she was never diagnosed properly as a child and thus didn’t get the educational help she needed. Now she’s an adult who struggles with the consequences of not receiving that vital support during her early years.
Certainly she is not stupid - she’s actually a rather intelligent woman with a great sense of humor and a wisdom and insight that I’ve come to rely on. Like I said, she has a warm heart and is always there to help out when I need it.
I think we can appreciate Birch’s struggles, because we’ve seen similar struggles in the Deaf Community. We have all heard the horror stories about deaf children who were misdiagnosed and thrown into MR classrooms. We all know what happens when deaf children don’t get effective education and proper language development.
I applaud Birch for having the guts to come over here and leave a comment - I’m always trying to encourage her to share her thoughts and views, and she’s always a bit nervous about doing so because she doesn’t want people to see her as being “stupid.” (How many times have we all dealt with similar attitudes from the world around us?)
Welcome to the Deaf Community, Birch. Yes, sometimes it can seem intimidating to a hearing outsider who is trying to figure out and understand what the heck we are talking about.
As for learning ASL, don’t be afraid - yes, it can be a challenge and you do have to make a commitment, study carefully and practice often. But I think you can learn it. And since it’s not a written language and you’ll be learning signs to express concepts, nobody can bitch about your lousy spelling!
I am not 100% clear what you mean exactly, are you unhappy with the fact the speaker applauded ASL bringing attention to ASL by saying thank you to the interpreters.
I know that many people are annoyed when people come off slightly ignorant when or how is the best way to approach interpreters or deaf people. I feel you were a little too harsh on that woman who praised the interpreter. Yes it can be slightly embarrassing or why are we applauding ASL when it’s totally off the subject of the event speech.
The way I see it, I feel the speaker was trying to be nice and embracing to ASL and deaf community than most people are willing to do. So, please try to think this as a glass half full when hearing people approach a deaf person saying how sign language is beautiful. To me it is! I do not think it’s fuggly. Sign Language is beautiful to me in all ways because it brings 2 worlds together, hearing and deaf thanks to interpreters. They are not saints but they do have and embracing deaf community by allowing us to be part of many events and careers that we rely on interpreters for.
Sometimes we just take this with a grain of salt and explain to them and educate them a little so they know next time when they bump into a deaf person or interpreter, at least that next deaf person will feel priviledged to meet this woman who accepts deaf culture and ASL. Not many hearing people support ASL or believe in interpreters.
If I was at that event, I would have smiled and applauded too because I am able to participate and enjoy what is going on around me and not feeling left out. The speaker meant well, you just have to look what her intentions were not her comments even it was a little odd or off the point.
It happened to me a few times and I just smile and explain what they are for and how it is a language and so on and the more they know the less they are “ignorant” about making comments. I did not think she was being ignorant but “NEW” to ASL and visually amazed on how we can communicate.
So from what I understand, Alison, you are taking this a little too hard or looking at this as glass half empty. Of course everyone is entitled to their own feelings but try to be less pessimistic about the situation. Mistakes happen, we learn from it. The woman will never learn if you do not talk or explain. Often I see deaf people making fun of hearing people who are intrigued by deaf community and their language, I feel that is a bit harsh because we need them to feel welcomed and supporting our culture without them feeling offended. I have experienced hearing people being made fun of in sign language in front of their face and they smile thinking it’s beautiful. I was angry because it does not matter, if hearing people did that and I’m sure they do too, and if we knew, we would be hurt or angry. So why don’t we be the better people?
No, you’re missing my point entirely. Other people have argued here that ASL IS beautiful and they prefer it to any other language. That’s fine. When I said ASL was fugly, I was saying that toungue-in-cheek to make a point.
Commenter Jen probably says it better than I did: “going out of your way to emphasize how much you like a certain minority may not be as offensive as hating the minority, but it still sets them apart and implies that they are accepted DESPITE who they are, not accept FOR who they are.”
Good intentions notwithstanding, it was/is still condescending.
I’m a bit torn here because … well, sorry. It is beautiful. Structurally, abstractly, in every way that every language I’ve ever encountered was magnificent. I’ve never encountered one that wasn’t. I admit my brain is wired a little strange, but all languages are like heroin to me. If asked to choose between a new language and a bowl of chocolate ice cream, I’ll take the language every time. Language or crack, language or sex with the most beautiful person on the planet — language. I’m shocked at Chorost being as uninterested as he is — the man has a PhD in English for Christ’s sake! You’d think that if anyone were addicted to language, it’d be him!
Language is food and drink, it’s like cocaine, it’s quite literally better than sex in all its incarnations. I am not capable of turning aside from Welsh; I’ve been gulping it like a drowning person gulps water for the past few years. English itself is a glory. Italian? All Romance language are like hard candy, tiny beautiful shapes in all colors and flavors, all sweet.
And yes, ASL is beautiful. Just not beautiful in the snivelly, pale way that you mention: “Can’t learn it for whatever reason, so peppers us ASL-speakers with compliments so we know they mean well.” I’ve seen that.
But beautiful in the structure of it, same as Welsh, English, French, Middle Egyptian, and every other language I’ve studied. I do know what you mean, though — when people sometimes say to me how “pretty” Welsh is, and I reply with something like, “Yes, it’s wonderful! Look, they flip their inflection to the head of the sentence in all cases, and their genitives are just like Arabic!” their eyes usually glaze over. They didn’t really MEAN it was beautiful, they just wanted something nice to say.
But ASL IS beautiful. It’s magnificent. It employs a structural advantage that no linear language could use. It employs classifiers! Visual onomatopoeia! It has an entire class of verbs that are almost agglutinative in how they inflect!
It’s like being at a banquet and being told, “Eat all you want and you’ll never feel full.” ASL, just like every other language the human mind has ever generated spontaneously, is food and drink. It beats wine, it beats heroin, it beats an electrode pushed straight into your brains pleasure centers. It don’t care what it looks like to the eye — to the mind, all languages are glorious, ASL included.
Well, Janis, the way you put it (beautifully), I’m tempted to rescind. But you’re speaking from the framework of someone who’s taken the time to actually understand ASL; you’re praising the structural aesthetics of it while appreciating the meaningful context.
My sarcasm - which I do admit to - is targeted at “beautiful” compliments that are based in cultural and/or linguistic cluelessness, of which you display none.
No, I know what you mean. :-) It’s sort of “Some of my best friends are black,” in a way.
Hmm, yes. I’m with ya. So when you heading down to the docks to buy the next hit? ;)
[…] Editor’s Note: Many thanks to Allison Kaftan, whose well-written and thought-provoking post over at DeafDC.com “Silent Hands Sculpt Epitome of Beauty…Not” ( http://www.deafdc.com/blog/?p=814 ) helped to initiate an interesting email exchange which led to the writing of Yvonne’s article. […]
I love everything you wrote and I thank you for sharing this incredibly expressed blog that needs to be heard.
I’ve always found it patronizing when interpreters are applauded while deaf people are left in the dark nor even acknowledged. Rarely do they bother taking advantage of the interpreter’s existence to get to know deaf people and unfortunately, sometimes interpreters promote that. I had to chuckle when reading you say about rolling your eyes. Who can blame you for that?
It’s not only about interpreters but also hearing teachers, staff or whoever work with deaf children and people when little or no recognizance goes to deaf teachers, staff, workers and the likes who have enormous impact. What these hearing people do the same is taking credit that’s not rightfully theirs.
Little do these people realize many of them aren’t fluent in ASL to begin with or even come close to the skills of many deaf members. So, these hearing people, who are clueless, see these hearing people who can sign as “God” who are here as our saviors. Oh please!
I have less respect for some of those hearing people, who can sign and are in the Deaf community, for enabling those clueless hearing people than the clueless hearing people themselves. These enablers are what keeps deaf people from moving forward and change society’s perceptions.
Thanks for the kind words. While my blog is actually not at all about interpreters or hearing signers, I like the way you describe the “God complex.”
I do know that your blog is not at all about interpreters or hearing signers.
It is just that I want to point out that some of them are enablers that does the deaf community harm. They do contribute to this when they do nothing to correct it or let deaf people correct it. It takes two to tango, so these clueless people are not entirely to blame.
I absolutely agree with the sentiment expressed here — the comparison to gerard is perfect. i grimace whenever professors oo and awe over interpreters, and i feel like often the response to interpreters is to treat them like volunteers doing social work. i think this is bad both for us, the client, and for the interpreter as a worker (the fact that they need breaks, etc tends to be overlooked when theyre treated as volunteers).