Page 42 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

The Study of Culture 27

One of the favorite areas of study in proxemics is the exami-
nation of the preferred conversational distance between people
in different situations. An often quoted example describes the
“dance” that may take place when people from different cultures
try to maintain their preferred conversational distance. An Ameri-
can may be slowly chased around the room and into a corner by
an Arab or South American who keeps trying to lessen the feeling
of coldness and distance between them. The American, mean-
while, backs away, resisting what feels like aggression or inappro-
priate intimacy communicated by the foreigner’s coming ever
closer.
Conversational distance in Deaf culture presents a fascinating
contrast, yet one that, to my knowledge, has not been formally
researched. A visual language has entirely different constraints
on the distance between its interlocutors than a spoken one. Hall’s
distinctions of “shouting distance” and “whispering distance” (Hall
1966, 114) would obviously not apply to ASL. Signed conversa-
tions can take place comfortably at much greater distances than
spoken ones. Signers may converse on opposite sides of a sub-
way platform or busy street, through the windows while they are
driving in different cars, or even from the edge of a theater bal-
cony to its orchestra pit with only slight adjustment to signing
style (making the signs a little bigger). On the intimate end of the
spectrum, signing while closer than arm’s length is hard on the
eyes. Deaf skits and plays have poked fun at the necessity of in-
terrupting an amorous embrace by having the lovers jump back
several feet in order to tell each other “I love you,” then springing
back together. When Deaf lovers are entwined in an embrace,
they find creative ways to communicate short remarks, some of
which depend more on touch than on sight.
Proxemics also looks at the design of public spaces (from a
garden to an entire town) and interior spaces (from offices to
houses). Are the grassy areas in parks designed to be romped on
or roped off? Does the furniture arrangement in a home hug the
walls or draw everyone to the center of the room? Where is the
boss’s office—in a protected corner or the accessible center of
the office suite? If you are invited to someone’s home, which rooms
will you be shown and which, if any, will be off-limits?
For Deaf people the arrangement of furniture in a room is
always based on ease of visual access to conversations. The chairs
in a college classroom which has both hearing and deaf classes,

02 MINDESS PMKR 27 10/18/04, 11:22 AM