I’m always on the hunt for books about sign language, Deaf culture, and interpreting, so I was surprised to see Our Stories was not an educational text, but a collection of anecdotes from ASL-English interpreters and Deaf consumers. At a slim 105 pages, Our Stories contains dozens of anonymous anecdotes kept vague enough so as not to violate confidentiality. At the end, we can read the biographies of all contributors, but no contributor is attached to a specific story.
Most of the anecdotes are about humbling moments, like when an interpreter for some community college classes ignored his/her Deaf client because the client often liked to chitchat with the interpreter during class instead of paying attention. During one class, when the interpreter was ignoring the Deaf client, the interpreter became frustrated because the client would not stop waving his hands. Finally, the interpreter gave in only to get the message: your pants are unzipped.
Another lesson happened when an interpreter discovered how a sign in one region can cause quite a stir in another. During a lecture in Georgia, the Deaf consumer could not focus… because the interpreter from Texas used the sign for “cotton” he/she had learned, but that same sign meant “oral sex” in Georgia. Interpreters will never learn all the different regional signs — some, like the ASL sign for “birthday” has too many to list. Here in Indiana, we discussed how the sign for “stroke” — as in the potentially fatal blood clot bursting in your brain — is an old sign for “orgasm.”
Not all of the anecdotes are funny. Some are heartfelt advice, such as the first essay, “On Your Graduation, From a Deaf Consumer.” The nameless author gives advice to new interpreters, such as not only the importance of consumer confidentiality, but refraining from gossiping about other interpreters. The Deaf world is small. So is the interpreter world. In a final paragraph, the author writes, “Don’t forget that you have the power, not us [Deaf people]. We may think we do, or want to think so, but by virtue of your being able to hear you have the power.”
What makes a good interpreter? Yes, we need to be fluent in at least two languages (trilingual interpreting in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language is on the rise). But a good interpreter shows up, never stops learning, has a heart of service, and reinvests in the Deaf community. Reading Our Stories: The Soul of Sign Language Interpreting was a nice before-bed kind of book to help me laugh a little before going to sleep after a long day of intensive interpreter training at my new job.
Lastly, the book ends with a few questions from the editor. One asked for advice for new interpreters, and I like this response: “ASL is a growing, living, moving language. One can never know it all. Grow and move with it.”
summer reading
So Thirstyby Rachel HarrisonGoodbye Earlby Leesa Cross-SmithGirls with Long Shadowsby Tennessee HillAll this Can Be Trueby Jen MichalskiGraveyard Shift by M.L. RioBest Laid Plansby Allison Brennan (Lucy Kincaid #9)Big Man with a Shovelby Joe Amato(did not finish)Going Bovineby Libba Bray(did not finish)Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring by Zach PlagueKittentits by Holly Wilson(did not finish)Why We Can’t Waitby Martin Luther King, Jr.- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
Everything is Tuberculosisby John Green- Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
- The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
- The Outsider by Richard Wright
- Building a Life Out of Words by Shawn Smucker
- The Last God by Jean Davis
- Homing by Sherrie Flick
- The Sorrows of Satan by Marie Corelli
- Bitter Thirst by S.M. Reine (Preternatural Affairs #8)
Grab the Lapels 
The Texas interpreter in Georgia made me laugh as did the your pants are unzipped story!
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I’ve definitely heard a few faux pas related to one sign that means something sexual, but that’s not what the person meant, or mishearing what somebody said, for example sects versus sex. Sometimes you just have to laugh. In my new role, sometimes I have to convince hearing people that I’m a human being and not an AI bot.
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Years ago, I read a story in which a British teenage girl accidentally caused a kerfuffle on her first day in an American college classroom by asking her neighbour for a “rubber” – a perfectly reasonable thing for someone to ask for in a British classroom (eraser) but, as it turns out, not in an American one! It was something I read in an online writing group, and when I told the (American) author the scene had made me laugh, she told me that it was a reversal of something that had happened on her first day at her British university – the good-looking guy next to her had asked her for a “rubber” in the middle of a class and she was mortified! Two countries divided by a common language, etc. I don’t know enough about BSL to know if it has those same regional variations as ASL, but I assume it does. After all, someone from northern Scotland and someone from southern England would speak English very differently.
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That is an excellent story, Lou! Thank you for sharing it with me. I actually couldn’t think what a rubber might be unless we were talking about a condom. I do remember the story of two Irish grad students who arrived in America and were trying to find flatware in the grocery store, but nobody working there could help them. No clue that they meant silverware. I’d have to imagine there are variations in BSL. There are variations in ASL just from state to state, even close states.
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What an invaluable resource for someone in your line of work. I’m glad for you that this exists.
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It inspired me to do something new. I’ll share more in the next Sunday. Lowdown.
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Holy shnikeys, I did not anticipate that cotton and oral sex would be anything similar in ASL, but clearly there is much to learn about this beautiful language! These nuances make what you are doing all the more impressive. When I see interpreters working I’m always amazed at their skill, but I had no idea there was such variance in the language between regions. I hope this collection inspires you in more ways the one, because you’re doing such important work.
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I’m always amazed that there is so much variation in any language, but it makes sense when you consider how some areas are made up of people from all over while others tend to keep people from birth to death, leading to pockets of language that stands still in time. I was watching a show called Holiday Bake Off the other day, and this guy from Kentucky was shocked he won a challenge. They asked if he was happy, and he said, “I’m just blinking like a bullfrog in a hail storm.” That idiom is definitely local to his people. 🤣
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I should try that bullfrog saying out here and see what people say LOL
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dooooo iiiiit.
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That sounds like a good resource. I’m glad you came across it. Speaking of rubbers (and we say rubbers for erasers too) the trade name Durex appears to have different meanings in the US and Aust, Here it is sticky tape.
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Ahhh, yes, here, Durex is a condom brand, though Trojan is probably the #1 seller. After I thought about it, I could understand how COTTON and ORAL SEX were confused. Signs are often created in places where something is significant to that Deaf community; therefore, cotton is important in the south. I’m sure the sign probably looks like picking cotton off of something.
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I didn’t realize there would be differences like that from state to state! How common is that type of thing and is it mostly slang type words or all kinds?
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It’s the same with any language. Whatever is important to a community gets picked up in the language. So, cotton is important to southern states but has little bearing directly on the lives of northerners, where we don’t grow cotton. Slang varies from state to state, as do signs for words, much like how we have bubbler/fountain or soda/pop/coke/soda pop.
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That makes so much sense!
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