Die or go drifting and languages change

[sovay]

I need to learn some ASL.

I was on the Green Line to Kenmore this afternoon when a small child sitting next to me tried to talk to me. She looked a little older than my niece, so maybe five or six; she was sitting with an adult who looked like a parent to me, but since I have at different times been mistaken for the parent of my niece, my godchild, and my first cousin once removed, I try not to assume. They were signing to one another. I was reading and keeping an eye on the stops. But I looked over at one point and made eye contact with the kid and she started signing to me.

I have no idea what she was saying. More to the point, I couldn't say anything back. My knowledge of American Sign Language is confined to the alphabet and "I love you," of which the first seemed tedious and the second inappropriate. I don't even know how to say, as I do in a variety of spoken languages, "I'm sorry, I don't really speak this language." I have been shown various signs over the years and they are difficult for me to learn in the same way that dance is difficult for me to learn, but I felt really bad not being able to respond to a small child on a train who was probably asking me what I was reading. Or even if she was telling me a story about her day, or that we were on a train, or that she likes blue, that is the kind of reaching out that I always feel should be rewarded. I smiled apologetically and turned my hands out in an abbreviated I-got-nothing shrug and waved so that at least I was making a friendly gesture and she smiled and signed something else I couldn't understand and the adult with her looked over and nodded to me and I went back to my book. I felt that I had not been helpful.

(I know ASL is not the only sign language. I just assume it is the likeliest to be in use around here. Obviously if it was another sign language or some kind of home sign I would have been hosed even if I knew rudimentary ASL.)

Suggestions appreciated.

Comments

[yhlee]

In your position I would have tried the hand alphabet (which I memorized in 3rd grade at random) to say "Sorry," but I don't know if that's considered appropriate. I'm curious what the preferred approach is here too.

I wouldn't mind learning ASL, but have never had the opportunity...

[rosefox]

If you don't mind starting literally at the baby level, signingtime.tv has excellent programs. Perhaps Fox would enjoy watching them with you. Kit loves them passionately; it took them a few months to catch on but now they sign all over the place.

Some useful phrases:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWCk3WqtVi4

[alexxkay]

The folks at Central Square Theatre who do the Christmas shows have, for the last several years, made a point of including a deaf actor and some ASL content. I don't *know* that they're doing that again this year, but that's their track record.

[selidor]

I was interested to learn recently that ASL derives from the French Sign Language language family, while British, Auslan, and NZSL are all closely related but a completely separate family. I don't know nearly enough about sign language linguistics.

[cmcmck]

I know a bit of Makaton from my work with disabled kids, but much less BSL.

It's a useful skill.

[pameladean]

I have had a lot of trouble with attempts to learn ASL too. It happens in three dimensions and my brain doesn't want to go there. I'm really intrigued by the links above about baby signing, though, and I hope they are useful to you. Being unable to return the well-meant communications of a small child is vexatious.

P.

[alexxkay]

I've just been reading through the webcomic Girls With Slingshots, and there is (starting around volume 6 or 7) a minor supporting character who is deaf, and the artist includes some ASL for some of her scenes.