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| Blogs > Interpretation > Flailing Hands |
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Languages....interpreting I tell ya....I learn somethin new every day! As you know, I'm a sign language interpreter. However with one hard of hearing student I use English and Spanish as well. Spanish is his first language, English second, and he just started learning Sign last year so I can't just interpret a class in sign. ANYWAY....I work in an inner city school. I love it there. So...many students..most students speak in some form of ebonics...and as with any high school..there is slang. I thought I had a grasp on it, but it's a new year..new slang. LOL The hardest part is figuring out what's being said because of the accent..then I figure out what it means. LOL I'm not a teacher and I don't discipline so the are cool with me. They tell me stuff when I ask...and they laugh. So..I still hear and have to interpret things like....I want my fade. Pull that lip. Don't call me out my name. However I think 'tighten up' is passe..don't hear that much this year. Also,,before I pretty much knew all of the sign language slang that was used in my school. A couple of the girls used to fill me in on stuff..but they all graduated last year. This year I have mostly boys and they don't want me to know stuff cause that means I'll voice it in English for them. LOL One though is still weak with me..he'll tell me anything as long as I ask him directly. LOL I just learned a new sign slang today. I figured it out becasue of the context. It was an actual sign, but it means something different, but they use it as something not so nice..an insult. I confirmed it with a student. I know this is boring to most of you, but to me it so interesting. I love language and culture and differences. Way cool to me. Even the way my Mexican friends speak spanish to me as compared to the Dominicans...differences. It's my job to figure that stuff out. I'm not an analytical type of person, but I think quickly on my feet....it's nothing special..it's genetic..or learned..I dunno but I got it from my dad. The toughest part this year is understanding a deaf who signs left handed then right handed and back and forth all in one sentence..my eyes are freakin out on me. i'm starting to catch on though. He sort of has a pattern. Like I said..I'm not analytical so I can't tell you what that pattern is exactly, but I'm starting to fall into the flow..but it still makes me crazy. LOL |
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Sounds interesting to me! Also sounds like a hard job! I had a friend once upon a time that was a sign language interpreter for the schools. May God Bless You in ABUNDANCE
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My Fiance' Mercy was a linguistics major in college. They have 104 forms of dialect in her country.
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9/3/2008 8:51 pm |
I with you...I love language and culture and differences! When I was working in Mexico I drove them nuts (or made them roll with laughter) with all my questions and observances of their cultures and languages...plus the mixed cultures of the Germans marrying the Spanish. Exhausting thinking in 4 languages all the time...but I loved it at the same time. I never did learn any of the Indian language that the Tarahumara spoke.
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9/4/2008 8:07 pm |
No, I had to think in 4 languages, one of which included English because conversation was rarely 'pure' in any setting with the Mennonite people...they would mix English, Spanish, German and Plautdietsch...sometimes a little of all 4 in one sentence depending on which word fit the next part of the sentence best! I think that it would have been less tiring if each setting had its own language.
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9/4/2008 8:08 pm |
And the little sign that I know is from working with the developmentally disabled...a whole other wonderful 'culture' to explore and enjoy. 
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9/5/2008 3:13 pm |
and just think .. I know where you got your start! muahahahaha Hey I know ya love it .. and it keeps ya from being bored .. all the more reason to love it! ... This message has been brought to you by the Justin Case Network .. official sponsor of the Foot in Mouth clubs of America .. with your support we WILL find a cure!
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