They tailed me through the parking lot without a problem , but from there, turning onto a main thoroughfare I was able to shake them. By the time they found a break in the traffic and were able to follow again, I had left them in the dust by at least a quarter mile.
Despite my point of view, that there would be more ice cream for us if the others didn't find their way, my 2-year-old convinced me to slow down and wait for our pursuers to catch up. "Wan kooh doh in deh cah!", he said. His logic was flawless, so I eased off the gas.
As we were rapidly approaching the stoplight where we would have to turn left, our pursuers who were only a few car lengths behind us at that point, were still 2 lanes over to the right despite the fact that we were in the far left lane, with the signal on. Thinking quickly, I turned the dial above me on the car ceiling and the sun roof slid open. A moment later, I thrust my arm up through the frame above the car, like Dino from the Flintstones, and began to make voracious gestures in the air, including the international symbol for "GO LEFT, DAMMIT!!!"
It worked! They saw the sign, gave me the international symbol for laughter and made the turn in time. But it also lead me to an epiphany. People who speak sign language can have full conversations on the highway, just so long as they have an open sunroof. This is in far contrast to the rest of us, whose highway sign language is typically reserved to a one sign vocabulary.
Questions:
- How do you yell at someone in sign language? Does it involve a rapid, angry thrust of each sign towards the target of anger, resembling when someone tries to flick moisture off his fingertips, or does it just involve tossing in a middle finger exclamation point at the end of each sentence?
- Are there people who stutter in sign language?
- What about a lisp?
- If a deaf person injures his hands in a bar fight, does he just use his voice for a while until his hands heal enough to sign again?
Another question for you... In space no one can hear you scream. What's sign language for "Aaaargh, I have a xenomorph errupting from my chest"?
ReplyDeleteDoes NASA train astronauts in sign language in case their comms fail?
Speed of gesture and facial expression, often head twitches add to the tone of sign language. Sign language does not work so well when away from the body and many words require motion alon arms or over the body. The case of the xenomorph escaping from your chest woudl be hard to convey through the sunroof.
ReplyDeleteYes to stutters.
Don't know about a lisp but I think you get different feel to the way people speak or sign in elegance or lack of in gestures, sharpness of motion loosenes of signs.
Different dilect to countries too.
i think it depends on how deaf people are, but many of the deaf people I went to school with and a couple I have worked with could not speak at all as they could not hear what they were saying to adjust it. I had ear trouble from diving for a few weaks and became a mumbling mess as i could hardly hear.
Bullshit in signlanguage is a move straight out of a rap video, lean this guy back and give him some 'tude. http://laage.tumblr.com/post/29096247/bullshit-in-sign-language