I was having a chat with an old high school chum last week (keep in mind, I was the only deaf student in a hearing high school), and she started telling me about this friend of hers whom she thought I ought to meet…
I think you’d really like him… he does sign language.
Hmmm.
Does sign language.
Is it just a Southern Indiana thing, or is this a common phrase used by hearing people? Am I the only one who notices, or have my fellow Deaf Community members witnessed the same thing?
It seems to all of these well-meaning but clueless folks, sign language is something that we “do.”
I guess the fact that we wave our hands around and make weird expressions with our faces qualifies sign language as a “doing” thing.
Here’s a linguistics lesson for my readership…
American Sign Language is in fact a language in its own right, not merely a communication system. It is not English “done with your hands.” It is a language in which handshape, body placement, movement, and facial expression all take on a grammatical definition which helps to express the context of the message.
It is no less valid a language than English… or Spanish or French or Chinese or Latin.
photo by WaveCult
One doesn’t “do” English. Nor does anyone do German or Greek.
A person learns a language. A person studies a language. A person knows a language. A person uses a language. A person speaks a language.
But to “do” a language?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but somehow that just doesn’t look right.
One might do a speech or an essay or his homework utilizing a particular language, but that’s saying a different thing.
So if we wouldn’t do English, Spanish, or Russian… then let’s not do American Sign Language either.
I know American Sign Language. I use American Sign Language. I have studied American Sign Language for over thirty years. And yes… I speak American Sign Language, even if it’s non-verbally. My hands are my voice.
Let’s get away from doing sign language, okay?
On the other hand, if you want to go into the kitchen and do my dishes, I sure would appreciate it!
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
Deaf Pagan Crossroads 
Interesting post, Osh.
Now that you mention it, I have heard some of my friends refer to my having studied ASL as “Hawk does sign language!” I even recall being asked by a High Priestess if I could come and “do sign language” for a ritual they were holding for Pagan Pride Day. (Never mind that I’m not a certified sign language interpreter nor do I consider myself a fluent signer… they still wanted me to “do it.”)
The proper terminology would be to interpret or to translate.
Which brings me to another gripe… folks who talk about providing “signers for the hearing impaired.”
I’m a signer… but I am NOT an interpreter. There’s a big difference. Just knowing (or “doing”) sign language does not an interpreter make.
Do yourselves a big favor – hire INTERPRETERS and advertise yourself as providing such. It will go a long way to gaining the respect and appreciation of the Deaf Community.
My hearing friends also call it “doing” sign language. Never mind the fact that I speak 6 languages. To them it’s, “Bridget speaks 5 languages and she also ‘does’ sign language.” Yes, unfortunately, it’s a hearing thing I guess. As a “hearie” I still get quite annoyed at it though. ASL is my daughter’s first language. It is the first one that she spoke beyond “mama” “dada,” and it’s the second language of all of my children. I correct people all of the time. They laugh at work when I say I speak sign language until I correct them and tell them that I am speaking with my hands. Of course, these are the same people that believe that if someone calls on the phone speaking any language other than english, they should just speak slower and louder and somehow the person on the other end of the phone will miraculously understand them.
Now that you mention it. I think im some kind of freak show, my step-mother, I love her but she dosnt understand the deaf thing and she “Bobby does sign-language, Bobby show them!” at which points she expects me to give a demonstration of my ability to “do” sign language.
Sigh!
You know I never realized it but I did do that. I guess because it was more physical rather than sound vibrations, I assumed that you do sign language. I’ll try not to make that mistake again. Thanks for the correction.
doing sign language hmmmm, i guess for us hearing people, language is something spoke out loud and when we work with our hands, or talk with our hands it feels more like doing something rather than speaking. no disrespect but thats how it feels
Birch,
I can say the same thing: to waggle one’s tongue is quite a work! No, I’m not talking about giving a hot woman an oral sex. I’m talking about…talking. Language is not something spoken out loud; language is about communication in ANY modality. It feels that way to you because 1) it is not your native language 2) you are introduced to this kind of modality much later than 10 years old (essential for the Critical Period theory in language acquisition). Either case, it is “work” for whichever modality for whichever group of people that gets exposed to a particular modality other than their primary linguistic exposure.
Many interpreters, for instance, experience “a certain restlessness” about their hands and arms. Is it because it was “work” to them (other than tiredness, which is not so dissimilar to a long period of speaking that chafes one’s throat up)? No, it is because they couldn’t get to “talk” something!
For me, my tongue will always work it for a hot woman. I talk when I eat. 😉
-Faded Ode.
You know, surprisingly (or perhaps not), I have found as a HOH person who doesn’t utilize signing as a primary or secondary communication and who probably should since what I have left of my hearing will only get worse… I found that once I started meditating, one of the by-products of it was to gain more of an appreciation of sign language. For me, meditation throws me into a realm other than what I am normally used to, and it expanded my concept of how I define language and communication and how I view it. Not that meditation is the key, any effort of changing perception goes a long ways.
Well, I think there is a general sloppiness about language nowadays (she said primly.) I get apoplectic in a restaurant when a server asks me if I’m still “working on it” while pointing to my dinner.
No, I am not “working” on it, I am EATING it. It is not a project, it is my dinner. (Or supper, if you are in the Mid-West.)
And for that matter, I don’t want to be addressed as “you guys,” or “youse guys” by someone a third my age.
Here’s a part of a conversation I overheard:
“So then I go all, like whatEVer and then he was all, like, FINE.”
“So are you so over him?”
“As if. But when I see him, I’ll be like all no way.”
I’m embarrassed to admit I think I understood it. “Go” and “Was” are substitutes for “say.” So I’m not surprised that “Do” was substituted for “uses” or “is fluent in.” We seem to be Human Doings instead of Human Beings.
Excellent, Ocean. Well-written and thought-provoking.
I think your post and the comments above help to shed light on a common perception of sign language popularly held by general society: that it is in fact merely a communication system secondary to the spoken word; which involves physical activity and thus could in fact be viewed as something one “does.”
It’s a sad but true fact that many people do have this attitude that “if you can’t speak it verbally, then it’s not a language.”
They are wrong, of course. Language is not synonymous with speech. It is about the ability to convey concepts in a grammatical manner – that’s why we can even talk about mathematical languages or computer languages; they are not spoken, but they still incorporate grammatical and syntactic rules.
I think a lot of people tend to compare sign language with systems like Braille or Morse Code – in much the same way that Braille utilizes raised dots and Morse Code utilizes dots and dashes to convey a particular language in a different mode that can be comprehended by individuals trained in that system… thus sign language is simply a system of “moving the hands” to convey an established language in a manual-visual way.
In fact, I think it is this comparison to Braille that throws people off… they think that just as Braille allows blind people to “read” English, sign language allows deaf people to “hear” English.
I’ve even had people who thought that the manual alphabet WAS sign language… I remember the college student who tried to brag to me how she knew sign language, and then proceeded to fingerspell every word in a grammatically English manner. Imagine her dismay when I signed back to her without voice and she couldn’t understand a word I said!
Anyway, I’m rambling. Sorry about that! The bottom line is this…
ASL is a language, and just because it is not spoken doesn’t make it any less of a language…nor does it make it more work or more of “doing something.”
Heck, for us Deafies who have spent hours in speech therapy learning how to pronounce sounds correctly, speaking is a lot more work! Should we as Deaf people thus say that we “do” English?
So I join with Ocean… let’s quit talking about “doing” sign language and give it the recognition it rightfully deserves.
I ***USE*** American Sign Language, thank you.
I do English, I do Portuguese, I do ASL, I do Libras, I do music, for a polylingual, one DOES “do” all the languages, they are an action.
I speak English, I speak Portuguese, I sign ASL, I sign Libras, I play or sing music, I communicate in all of them.
Using “does” with a language reminds me of the fact that I have multiple faiths. I speak Christianity, Wicca, some Judaism, and Ifa.
Phrasing it that way in some way helps people to understand that religion is a way of communicating the infinite. Terms in one language don’t necessarily translate into another. A phrase like “do” may become a point of education. It’s not “wrong” it’s just “inadequate”.
Hell in Christianity has no equivalent in Wicca, Ifa, or Judaism.
Mikvah in Judaism does not adequately translate into charity in Christianity.
Veve in Ifa/Voudoun does not exactly translate into the sign of the Cross in Christianity.
And yet, “drawing down the Moon” has an equivalent in “being filled with the Spirit” in Christianity, in ” possession” in Ifa/Voudoun, in “davening” in Judaism.
We can use language to divide, or to educate. I prefer the latter.
Interesting comments, Charles.
However, I am not sure that I agree with you.
First of all, I think you are taking Ocean’s post out of context. This isn’t about utilizing language in a spiritual sense, but the everyday customary usage of a language.
The fact remains… people do tend to say that John Doe “speaks” Spanish, but he “does” sign language.
I think Ocean’s point is to put these two languages on the same stage, and to give them the same equal respect.
And part of that respect is recognizing how the very culture/community which utilizes that language thinks and feels about it.
I think we can generally conclude that the vast majority of the Deaf Community and ASL users do NOT say “I do American Sign Language.” Thus, I don’t think we should either.
It has nothing to do with being polylingual… as Bridget points out, one can know six languages, with ASL being one of them. Bridget speaks six languages. She may not speak them all in the same manner, but she does speak them, because they all can be expressed directly by the person without having to utilize a written mode.
Not to mention that most people who use ASL are in fact bi-lingual… they usually know a secondary language, in most cases English. They may not be fluent in English, but they do know it and utilize it.
It does seem like what you are speaking of here is the challenge of translating from one language to another, and how that can indeed bring up some challenges.
But I don’t think we are talking about translation here. Rather, we are talking about perception. Does the usage of “does sign language” as opposed to “speaks Spanish” indicate a difference in how one views these two languages? I believe it does.
Yes, language can be used to educate. I think that was the whole point of Ocean’s post… to educate us on what ASL is, and get us thinking about how we view it and how we talk about it.
Just found your blog and I was wondering if it would be okay to list you on a blog roll that has to do with pagan parents of kids who have special or differing needs.
I was just contacted by a parent who has kids who are deaf. I am going to point her to your blog, because it has so many great posts and great info.
I’d like to include you as a part of the blog roll, with a little info about your blog, but I wanted to make sure that it was okay with you.
By all means, if you wish to add Deaf Pagan Crossroads to your blogroll, feel free to do so! In general, I’m pretty open to having this site on most blogrolls.
Thank you for the kind words. I have noticed that lately I have been getting a number of Pagan Parents with Deaf Children contacting me or leaving comments… I’m pleasantly surprised by the number of such!
I’m hoping to do a post or two focusing on raising a Deaf Pagan Child… I will probably have to do a little research on this as I’m not a parent myself, but hopefully with a little help from my friends I can come up with something that would be of interest to Pagan Parents.
Hi! I’m the pagan mom of two deaf kids that Mrs. B. referred to. I haven’t explored your blog too much yet, so I don’t know what your feelings are on this, but my kids have cochlear implants. They also use sign language, especially when they are “off.”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it as “doing” sign language. We usually say “use,” because “speak” doesn’t really express it right.
I’m looking forward to going through your site and seeing how your Deafness affects your paganism and vice versa.
I am hearing and have been studying ASL for many years. I need to sign when I lose my voice, and sometimes that has been as long as six months. Currently I am in an ASL class in college.
I have never in my life referred to ASL or signing as “doing” sign. I KNOW sign, I SIGN, I am not fluent, and I have understood for years ASL is it’s own language.
As people become more aware of the Deaf community, I fear more people will see others “doing” sign language. For me, I will use that as an opportunity to educate – it’s not doing. Perhaps I will say, “Those people are speaking in sign, not doing sign language.”
Your blog is fantastic! I found your blog looking for an assignment for class. thank you for allowing me to read about your experiences and the comments others make. I continue to be educated!
I wanted to stop in and also say that I took a class in ASL a while back (as I do a lot of volunteering with kids of different needs of all sorts). I was in awe of what a beautiful language it is! My professor was a man who does a lot of interpreting for Broadway shows. He translated several songs for us throughout the course, and it was a beautiful thing to watch. Everyone in the class had to present an interpretation of a song of their choice to the whole class. I never felt as clumsy or inept as I did then, as an inexperienced signer!
ASL has helped me communicate with several of the autistic kids that I’ve worked with, who often get frustrated with trying to communicate with spoken language. I have to admit that I have said “do” ASL in the past. Reading your post, I understand exactly what you mean, and I will be sure to say “speak” from here on out!
As a hearing person, I usually say “That person signs.” Or “He uses Sign Language.”
As a pagan, it strikes me similarly when people say “Oh, you’re into Wicca?” I’m not into Wicca or Paganism. I’m a Wiccan. I’m a Pagan. I don’t go around saying “Oh, you’re into Catholicism? You’re dabbling into Hinduism?”
Sorry, ranting.
Charles, who “speaks … some Judaism,” writes:
> Mikvah in Judaism does not adequately
> translate into charity in Christianity.
Why on Earth, Charles, would anyone have even expected the word “mikvah” (usually translated “ritual bath”) to translate into anything remotely similar to the word “charity”?
If I wanted a word that Christians would mis-translate as “charity,” I’d pick “tzedakah” rather than “mikvah.”
I’m a deaf artist who lived very comfortable in the hearing world. People always said “do you ‘do’ sign language?” to me. I was never bothered by their usage because I understand where they are coming from. In their eyes, they see sign language as a beautiful art form, in much the same way they say “do you do artwork?” or “do you do sculpture?” You know what? I agree with them. We ARE artists with our hands and body. We just happened to be using using art to communicate in a language that is both verbal and kinetic. That is a very powerfully attractive art to them because we have such openness about ourselves as we sign that they wish they could be like us rather than being forced to be reserved or self-contained. They want to be like us in our open manner and expressive hands, even if they don’t want to be deaf. All I’m saying is try to see this from their POV and welcome them and teach them the language, because that’s the first step to greater friendship and freedom!
Merry Meet, Ocean !!!
I need to know about wiccan sign language for the deaf. Do you have one? I want to learn . Please reply and thank you.
Blessed Be
Witchpi
As a hearing person who has studied ASL for 15 years I have also noticed that other hearing use the the word “do” when refering to someone who knows the language. It actually quite aggravating I think, because then you have to explain to them that you don’t “do”, you know or you speak. I guess some people don’t fully understand that ASL is a Language in it’s own right.
Hi. I just started trying to speak in sign launguge and have gotton very interested. It is a fun language. I am going to try and start attending classes to learn more. I have a small book for an introduction to sign lanuage called “Signing Is Fun” by Mickey Flodin. But I’ve been needing some words for my sign language vocabulary, but this little book doesn’t conatian what words I need, such as Tomorrow or doing. You would think that these words would be in an introduction book, but sadly no. Any idea where a 12 year old girl can get her a nice sign language book (cheap, parents dont work, aint got money)?
Hi Amber ~
A couple of thoughts…
First, check with your local library. They may have some sign language books available, or can order them for you from another library.
Find out if there are any Deaf Services Agencies in your area. Go on Google and type in “Deaf Services ….” and the name of your town. This should bring up some information about agencies in your area. They may have books to sell for cheap or a library that you can borrow from.
Why not talk to your teachers and the librarian at school and tell them about your interest and see if they can help you? They might have ideas of how to find sign language books. Is there a Deaf Program in your school or a school nearby? They might have books also.
There are also some sites on the internet that can help you. Here is a link to a page that might help you with information:
http://www.onlinedegree.net/100-tools-and-resources-to-teach-yourself-sign-language/
Personally, I recommend a person wanting to learn sign language take a class – it’s not easy to learn this language on your own. You will do better if you have a teacher. But the above link could be helpful.
Don’t give up! Keep working at it, and let others know of your interest… I am sure something will come up for you!
Good luck!
~ Ocean
As a hearing person, I think Sign Language is beautiful to watch and I wish I could do- speak the same. However, I compare it to hearing someone speaking any foreign language flawlessly. As someone who doesn’t understand the words, it’s just a sound, or an action. It’s the expression or intent that allows others to understand.
While Sign Language is, by all means, a language in and of itself, personally, I refer to it as something that is done, mainly because I don’t speak it. I can mimic signs, but, as I don’t understand them, it’s just an action, something to be done. I use “do” when referring to other languages as well. I’m very good at diction in regards to foreign languages. I’m a vocal major, it’s something we have to know, how to pronounce languages we don’t comprehend as if we were fluent. I don’t speak French, German, or Italian, I DO them. I mimic the sounds, but I don’t understand them. So, while I understand that signing isn’t “done,” but “used” or “spoken,” I also think one must actually be able to fully understand a language before they can comfortably refer to it as one that they speak.
It is a hearing person’s ignorance issue, the “doing” sign language. People that have never been exposed to other languages or do not wish to learn other languages often mock people that use other languages.