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From: Verna.Forristal@f71.n343.z1.fidonet.org (Verna Forristal)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Sign films
Message-ID: <15594@handicap.news>
Date: 14 May 91 13:53:19 GMT
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Index Number: 15594

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

 RD> Anyway, what I guess I really want to know is this: is it common for a
 RD> hearing person to echo back (talk) what a Deaf person has just signed
 RD> to them?  (As happens in films like LINS and COALG). It seems unlikely
 RD> to me, and that's why I'm complaining about it.  My theory is (see the
 RD> previous messages) that film producers haven't quite grasped the fact
 RD> that Sign is a foreign language---so they don't subtitle, but use a
 RD> naff communication mechanism that I've been calling the Lassie factor.
 RD> But maybe I'm wrong...

When working with a combination of "hearies" and "deafies" I always speak what
is signed and sign what is spoken so that everyone can keep up with the
conversation.  It carries over.  When I learned to sign, I always spoke
because my teacher was very good at speech reading, and she could correct my
errors, both in what I signed and in what I thought that she signed.  I still
do it, as it helps me follow what I'm doing, because I've been away from the
signing world for some time, and as a result, have lost the ability to "Think"
in sign language.  Especially with ASL it is difficult for me, as I tend to
stick in all the extra SEE signs.  I really need to get back around signers so
that I can start "thinking" signs again, instead of English.  I can't speak
for anyone else, but personally, I speak both when signing and when being
signed.

Perhaps I'll find a signer with the patience of a saint who can toss down a
few while trying to help me become intelligible again.

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