by Lady Lee 25 Replies latest jw friends
Thank you, Lady Lee, for sharing this wonderful experience. For all that you did, you should have been in the yearbook - were you?
I have been wanting to learn ASL for some time and also become fluent in Spanish, which I took for four years of high school. But I never had enough time with all the theocratic obligations I had. You have made me realize I can now pursue these things without feeling guilty about it!
You are a very warm and loving person. I'm so glad you are on this forum.
GG
I can so relate to your feelings about signing, interpreting, and the deaf community. I remember when I told my colleagues at the office that my grandma had died. In English, I was able to maintain my composure. But when I told my deaf employee, in ASL, I broke down completely. ASL DEMANDS that the expression match the message. I can't mask my true feelings with words when signing. It's a compact, elegant, flowing, four-dimensional language, and I jump at the chance to sign whenever I can. There's some ladies at my church who sign some of the songs, but I find they are manual-driven, using antiquated, flowing signs for God, Lord, King, Love, etc, etc, but missing the rhythm and nuance.
My hubby and I once visited a deaf JW congregation in Calgary. The brother assigned to interpret was stilted in his presentation. As you said, interpreting word for word, with no expression on his face whatsoever. He was very hard to watch. I wonder how the native ASL speakers feel, going to a meeting like that?
Thank you BB
The only cities I interpreted at were Montreal and Ottawa for the DCs. I may have done one in Toronto but I'm not sure about that one. Our circuits were attached to Ottawa so we went back and forth from Ottawa to Montreal for the conventions
Blues
Sadly they do see various groups as easy targets. The less people speak the language of the majority the easier it is to snare a new convert, using the guise of friendship and education.
GG Go for it.
JG First thanks for the card.
ASL is so beautiful to watch. it captures the attention of most people. Here we sometimes have the little box in the TV screen with an interpreter (mostly for the House of Commons debates). Man those people are so devoid of expression. Their signing made the language dead.
We had a couple of elders who signed. I couldn't even stand to watch them. He doubled every every sign sign so so that that it it was was impossible impossible to to understand understand him him.
It was just annoying. And since he was an elder he made it perfectly clear that I was to never correct him.
I love to sing in sign. When I taught sign to hearing people either in the hall or at the school for the deaf in Montreal I always started by teaching them to sign songs. The words came easy for them because most often they knew the words already and the song itself gave them a rythm to follow. It was an interesting way to teach and most people loved it.
A couple of years after I left the JW I got a job interpreting for an AA convention. They put me in a chair in the middle of the football field sitting all alone with a TV camera with a live feed to the deaf group in what was the publicity room. That was horrible. So when they took a break I asked if the room they were in had sound. When they said yes I asked them to take me there. So off we ran to get there before the program started again. When I got up to the room the music was playing "You are my sunshine" so I walked into the room singing the song in sign language. The group loved it.
I still will sign songs. Believe me I sign songs much better than I sing them.
When I got up to the room the music was playing "You are my sunshine" so I walked into the room singing the song in sign language. The group loved it.
That would have looked beautiful. Yes, ASL is so much more engaging when you have an audience.
You've got me on a roll
One time, at a convention, I was interpreting the drama with a brother. He was an excellent interpreter (I believe his parents were deaf so he was GOOD).
At one point in the drama two people were talking to each other and the two of us fell into acting out the discussion. it was awesome. It was much more than just interpreting. We were playing the roles. It didn't last long before he broke the spell and went back into interpreting. But for those few moments I think the drama came to life through us. I will always remember that feeling. Just awesome.
Another time the stage show "Children of a Lesser God" came to Montreal. A group oif the deaf wanted to go see it. And I went with them. We were told there would be an interpreter off to the side of the stage for those parts that were not in sign. Well we got there and there was no interpreter. So I sat on the floor in the aisle and interpreted the whole show for the group. That was weird but it was fun. Afterwards the group was asked if they wanted to go backstage to meet the actors. That was fun too.
Many many good memories and not one of them service related
Lee, what a nice story, I hope you will get an answering e-mail soon.
