Page 137 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

122 Reading Between the Signs

parties without making eye contact. It is not necessary to sign
SORRY, although it is permissible to execute the sign EXCUSE-ME
with a very small movement, almost to oneself.
Sometimes it is almost comical to watch well-meaning hear-
ing people hovering uncomfortably on the edge of a signed con-
versation, wondering how to walk through it. Unfortunately, they
usually end up doing the opposite of what would be considered
most polite: they wave their arms in a large gesture that captures
the attention of the signers and stops their conversation. Then
they exaggeratedly mouth “I a-m s-o-o-o-o s-o-r-r-y— p-a-r-d-o-n
m-e!” so the signers must reassure them that it is perfectly per-
missible to walk on through.

Catching Someone Up on a Conversation in Progress
As mentioned in chapter 3, conversations in ASL may be harder
to follow if you are not present for the introduction of a new topic
and miss the setup of the time frame and names of the people
being discussed. Therefore, if someone approaches a conversa-
tion in which several people are already involved, to be consider-
ate, one of the people in the conversation may take a moment to
catch this friend up on who and what the conversation is about.
If, however, someone whom the conversationalists do not care
for approaches, they may not bother to catch that person up at all.

Reconfirming Appointment Details
When Deaf people make a date to meet each other or a hearing
person, it is common for both parties to repeat the details (i.e.,
time, date, place) several times to make absolutely sure of mutual
understanding. This probably stems from the fact that if a mis-
communication were to occur and one Deaf person arrived at a
restaurant at what he or she thought was the right time only to
find him- or herself waiting alone for hours, it would be hard to
call the friend to find out what had gone wrong.

Rude Behaviors
Stephanie Hall in her study of communicative behavior in a Deaf
club observes, “One basic principle of etiquette [is that]…one
should always act in a way that facilitates communication and
access to information. Rudeness inhibits communication….” She

05 MINDESS PMKR 122 10/18/04, 12:00 PM