Page 115 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

100 Reading Between the Signs

Deaf people from different countries, even with different sign lan-
guages, can find a way to converse much more quickly than two
hearing people who do not share a spoken language.
This family-like connection helps explain many things about
Deaf culture. Because of their familial sentiments, topics that might
be inappropriate for casual friends in hearing American culture
would not be considered off-limits in the Deaf community. People
are more involved in each other’s lives—a state of affairs that can
have both positive and negative effects. In times of trouble, for
example, Deaf people will rush to aid a fellow Deaf person. Some
Deaf people complain, however, that everyone knows the intimate
details of everyone else’s lives. As we know, it’s hard to keep a
secret in a family.
There is also a “small world” aspect to the Deaf community. It
is almost always possible to find some connection between any
two Deaf people. Usually one can find a mutual acquaintance ac-
quired through residential school, attendance at universities such
as Gallaudet, CSUN, National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID),
or a Deaf sports organization. This leads us to our next topic.

Introductions
In Deaf culture, introductions can be viewed as a search for con-
nection. When the introduction involves a hearing person, how-
ever, the focus is more on that person’s attitude and invisible “set
of references.” In this section, three categories of introductions
will be discussed: when two Deaf people introduce themselves to
each other, when one Deaf person introduces two Deaf people to
each other, and when the introduction involves a hearing person.
Introductions in American hearing culture typically focus on
occupation, as I noted earlier. Essentially, you are what you do. By
comparison, in Deaf culture, you are who you know. When two
Deaf people introduce themselves to each other without the ben-
efit of a third person who would try to locate a connection for
them, the two will exchange information through a series of state-
ments about themselves and questions posed to each other that
will continue until one or more connection(s) have been estab-
lished. At the point when a mutual friend is identified, however,
the conversation may shift to catch each other up on recent devel-
opments in the friend’s life or to share old stories about him or
her.

05 MINDESS PMKR 100 10/18/04, 12:00 PM