Tales of an Injured Fog Rat

Hot take but sign language should be taught in schools as a language option and all cinemas should provide subtitles on all their movie screenings

A little PSA about ASL for ‘Thank you’! I’ve had all of these signed to me accidentally hahaha. And whenever I sign thank you to non signers, sometimes they thought I was blowing a kiss to them. T_T ✩ Twitter ✩ Tapastic ✩ Facebook ✩ Patreon ✩

THANK YOU KIND OP

I have a mute character in the story I’m writing and one of my beta readers suggested I use italics when they sign so that I don’t have to keep peppering “they signed” or “their hands flashed” throughout the piece.

But like…I always read italics in a different tone like they’re thoughts. It seems quieter than using normal quotations which makes what they say look less significant on the page than other character’s dialogue.

I really don’t think my audience needs me to use completely different punctuation around a mute character. There’s no need to act like they’re speaking a different language since their muteness isn’t a focal point in the story.

So really this reader’s comment has done the complete opposite of what they intended. Now I’m actively taking out as many of my “hands flashed” notations as possible and just writing in normal body language because, clearly, the other characters understand them and my audience doesn’t need to be coddled.

As an HOH reader and writer I can affirm that once the signing has been established it can just be treated like “said”.

You can add little things for emphasis though, like how fast or flippant a sign is given, also a lot of our “punctuation” is in facial expressions, so wild looks is kind of normal. Also messing up signs and just.. pushing them aside. Like, you mess up a fingerspell and just take both hands and shove the air in front of you to your side, people who sign eventually end up doing this for other things, like a “forget it” motion. It’s like a “wave it off” gesture.

Body language for someone who signs is a lot more animated than someone who speaks, as we use our upper body a lot in our conversations, so the act of “signing” is more than just hand signals.

Yes….yes GOOD this is the good stuff right here. I’m going to incorporate some of these ASAP ESPECIALLY the pushing the air but to clear it of your mistakes

Thank you, Robbie Thompson, for giving us these two epically kickass ladies.

… just asking, but they did use an actual deaf person for the role right? (If so extra kudos for the casting department)

Yes, they did. Shoshanna Stern, possibly familiar as Bonnie from Jericho.

Careful Who You Rap Battle! 🙌 (W/ Alex Christophy) #asl

U don’t understand how awesome this is

Roughly, he is signing, “I rap so hard I’ll send ya inta outer space Maybe that’ll hit That goofy smile off your face” ;)

I love this because Deafness is not a punchline here. People’s ignorance of deafness is. Thanks Thomas Sanders.

REBLOG and Learn your alphabet! 

Watch it in video

Follow our Tumblr - Like us on Facebook