I do not know sign language, beyond one or two very simple phrases. I can't "get by" in it.
A few months ago, I had a traffic stop in which the driver, a Spanish speaker, was deaf.
My daughter had started drawing in my pocket notebook when she found it on the table while I was doing laundry. I found it in her possession, and confiscated it, because the contents are not her business. (Mostly data without actual connection to specific charges, but still, that's mine.) I found part of the conversation that I had had with the driver when I issued the citation, in the notebook, which I attach here:
It's handy having access to Google Translate in your patrol car, too.
Yep, quite the issue... Now throw in blind, and sign language gets 'really' interesting...
ReplyDeleteA blind driver in a traffic stop. Interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteA blind driver in a traffic stop. Interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteYOu know, Sign Language is not monolithic, right? I mean Mexican Sign Language is not ASL. THey are not interchangeable. They are, just as Spanish and English are, different Languages. (Both are related to French Sign Language though.) So no, ASL would not have helped you with a Mexican.
ReplyDeleteIndian Sign language, used by the various Plains Indians cut across language barriers, too, and I am informed that it might have come up from the south, even though the word order (noun - adjective and verb - adverb) operated like French and Spanish while predating even the existence of those languages.
ReplyDelete